North Star and Nelson County have each made it to the Division B, Region 2 semifinals.
Despite being the No. 4 and 3 seed from District 4, respectively, both teams recorded wins in Monday’s quarterfinals at the Devils Lake Sports Center. The top two seeds from the district — Langdon Area/Munich and St. John — both lost, ending their seasons.
For the second straight game, North Star was fueled by a 32-point performance.
In the region qualifier round, it was Ian Westlind. This time, it was Hunter Hagler. He put up 32 in a 64-61 win over Park River/Fordville-Lankin — the No. 1 seed from District 3. No other Bearcat had more than eight points.
JD DuPreez, however, hit the game-winning three.
North Star had a tight 31-28 lead at halftime, then fell behind 50-45 by the end of the third quarter. The Bearcats outscored the Aggies 19-11 in the fourth to squeak out the win.
Early in the season, North Star beat PR-F/L 60-49.
With Monday’s win, the Bearcats (18-5) advanced to a Tuesday semifinal matchup with the No. 3 seed from District 3, Midway/Minto (20-3). M/M beat North Star 70-51 in the Bearcats’ second game of the season. North Star has the luxury now, though, of being able to lose a game and still have a chance at making it to the state tournament.
M/M is coming off a 59-27 win that eliminated St. John.
LA/M lost in the third game of the day, 54-38, to North Border, the No. 4 seed from District 4. The Cardinals’ season ended with a 12-11 overall record.
The four-game slate culminated in Nelson County, the No. 3 seed from District 4, winning 49-32 over Drayton/Valley-Edinburg, the No. 2 seed from District 3.
The Chargers held D/V-E to just eight points in the first half.
It took some time for Nelson County’s offense to get going much, either, but it still had a 15-point lead by the end of the third quarter.
Forwards Rider Schmidt and Jaxson Joramo scored 17 and 10 points, respectively. Zane Anderson had a 15-point game for the Chargers (16-6).
Nelson County has now doubled its win total from last season. The Chargers are guaranteed at least two more games.
They’ll take on North Border in the second semifinal game on Tuesday at the Devils Lake Sports Center. Nelson County already has a win over North Border this year — 54-47 on Feb. 6.
The semifinals begin at 5:30 p.m., with the North Star vs. M/M game up first.
Nelson County has played both of its potential Thursday opponents already. The Chargers lost to M/M 62-50 on Jan. 5. They lost to North Star twice — 65-57 and 72-60 — but won their third matchup, 69-58, in the district tournament.
Other happenings from Monday
There were a couple of surprising results in Division A tournament action on Monday.
While things went as expected for Four Winds/Minnewaukan and Devils Lake, the Region 2A slate ended in an upset. No. 6 seed May-Port-C-G beat No. 3 seed Hillsboro/Central Valley. The Patriots, playing with their home fans in attendance, won 54-48. They had an 11-point lead at halftime that H/CV cut to four, but the Burros’ comeback fell short.
Wyatt Perkins had 20 for May-Port. Bricker Johnson had 18. H/CV got 15 and 13, respectively, from Bryce Miller and Alex Dufner.
It was the last game of H/CV head coach Elliot Rotvold’s 29-year coaching career, which included more than 500 victories. Just over a week earlier, his team had beaten FW/M to end the Indians’ 17-game winning streak.
May-Port, despite being seeded No. 6, has had a scrappy season with close games against Devils Lake and FW/M.
No. 7 seed Carrington also put up a solid fight in the first half against No. 2 seed Grafton, tied 28-28 late in the half. But Grafton pulled away to win 71-52.
The Patriots’ win wasn’t even the biggest upset in Division A on Monday. That honor goes to Valley City, which stunned Kindred in the Region 1 quarterfinals.
The Hi-Liners came in with just a 3-17 record. All three of those wins were against Division B teams. They’d lost 15 in a row.
Kindred was the defending state champion. The Vikings were notably playing without star Brooks Bakko, who was out with an ankle injury. Still, Kindred was a team that spent some time this season ranked No. 1 in the state.
So, for the first time in the history of Division A, the state championship game is guaranteed to not be Devils Lake vs. Kindred.
Valley City beat Kindred 65-56. The Hi-Liners led after every quarter: 15-8, 27-26 and 45-41. Jack Dieterle led Valley City with a 31-point performance, while Miken Mattson added 16. Gabe Whipple and Gabe Iverson scored 24 and 14 for the Vikings, respectively.
Kindred had taken the teams’ previous two matchups, 63-46 and 72-54.
Region semifinals across the state, in Division A and B, are scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. at their respective locations.
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