Titans split home-games as season winds down

Feb. 10—DICKINSON — For the Trinity Titans on Friday, Feb. 9, all the tumblers seemed to fall into place for the boys as they took a massive home-win at the Knights of Columbus Activities Center, 72-39, while the girls nearly came back from 10 points down and were slightly outlasted by Watford City, 58-55, in Division A-Region 4 action on both sides. The games moved the boys to 3-1 in the region and 11-5 overall, while the girls dropped to 11-9 overall and 2-3 in the Region 4.

The boys nearly doubled-up Standing Rock Community with the win, which came on the strength of total-team scoring by the home-side — with nine players in the scorebook — and double-figures from senior guards Jace Kovash and Jake Shobe. Trinity raced to a 16-9 lead at the end of the first period and pushed the lead to 39-16 at the half, as Shobe scored 8 of his game-high 20 points in the first 16 minutes and Kovash paced the home-team with 14.

THS used a series of runs to create distance in the matchup, getting the second quarter started with an 8-3 run and following that up with a 15-2 run to close-out the half.

Meanwhile, Standing Rock Community had trouble getting out of the starting blocks, scoring in single-digits in the first two quarters due to overwhelming defensive presence from the Titans.

After the halftime break, THS came out of the locker room, still-steady, as Shobe added 6 — with 6 more to come in the final frame — and Kovash rounded out his scoring with a bucket to wind up with 16.

Outscoring the Warriors over the second half, at 33-23, Trinity put-on the pressure and poured-in the points as Cade Fitterer scored 8 points, freshman Emerson Simnioniw and Ty Dassinger notched 7 each and Kaden Ham dropped in 6 of his own.

"I think that was our best game of the year, and it was a very good week for us; I thought our kids, through very important regional games, really competed their butts off both nights: Tuesday (47-42 road-win over Killdeer) and tonight," Titans head coach Gregg Grinsteinner said. "We executed our game-plan that we talked about ... and I thought our kids did a heckuva job."

Lance Bradley led the way for the Warriors with a double-digit total of 13, but no other visiting teammate ended found their way to 10 or more, as they dropped to 8-7 overall and 0-2 in the region.

The nightcap was a more-harrowing affair for the girls, although they showed courage and came back from 10-points down to nearly tie the game in the fourth quarter at the buzzer. The game seesawed back-and-forth, with the Titans pushing a 21-15 advantage after the first quarter but falling behind by a single-digit at 30-29 by the halftime whistle.

Junior forward Nevaeh Tormaschy got off to a quick start with 10 first-half points and sophomore guard Annabel Scheeler added 9 — with two 3-pointers among them — but Trinity was held to single-digits in the second frame.

Watford City reeled off 17 coming out of the halftime break, while Scheeler dropped in a trey and Tormaschy added 4 to her game-total of 14, to hand the Titans a 47-40 deficit heading into the final eight minutes.

The hosts came out gunning, outscoring the Wolves (13-6 overall, 4-1 in the region) 15-11 in the final frame as Scheeler went off for a pair of shots from behind the arc on her way to a team-high 19 points — 12 in the second half. THS took advantage of a 9-5 run — and a late trey from Scheeler at the :20 mark — that closed the gap, but the buzzer-beater failed to fall.

"I thought both teams played very good games today; I think — when you really break it down — it was a 3-point game and Watford City made a few plays more than we did," Trinity head girls coach Jared Scheeler said. "But both teams went out and fought all night long, both teams were executing and both teams were making plays."

Next-up for the boys will be a home-date versus Shiloh Christian on Feb. 13, while the girls will host Killdeer in their regular-season finale on Feb. 12.

For more information about prep basketball in North Dakota, please keep reading your Dickinson Press and/or visit the websites at

https://ndhsaanow.com/teams/basketball-boys

and

https://ndhsaanow.com/teams/basketball-girls

.