Devils Lake’s Mia Elsperger guards the in-bounds pass from Four Winds/Minnewaukan’s Suri Gourd in their regular-season meeting on Feb. 9, 2026. (Photo by Mojo Hill)
DEVILS LAKE — Between the Firebirds and Indians, only one team will remain alive going into this weekend.
Both teams lost in the Region 2 girls’ basketball semifinals, bringing them to a meeting in Thursday’s third-place game. The winner will advance to a state qualifier game on Saturday; the loser’s season will end.
“That’s the thing we just told them in the locker room: It’s win or go home. You lose, you’re done,” Devils Lake head coach Justin Klein said after Tuesday’s 65-53 loss to Thompson. “And especially for the three seniors, and Tylie and Ava, they’ve been through a lot. And we want to move on. We want a chance on Saturday.”
What better way to dial up the drama than a local showdown in the biggest game of the season?
Across boys’ and girls’ basketball, it’s only the second time Devils Lake and FW/M have matched up in the postseason. The other meeting was in the 2024 boys’ region tournament. And even then, it wasn’t an elimination game. Devils Lake won that contest 68-58 on its way to a state title.
For this year’s Firebirds and Indians girls, it will be the second meeting of the season.
Devils Lake is 13-10 overall. FW/M is 16-7. The Firebirds came into the tournament seeded No. 3 with a 10-4 region record, while the Indians were seeded No. 4 at 8-6.
They played each other on Feb. 9. It counted for two points in the region standings. Devils Lake won, 56-43.
The Firebirds held star Suri Gourd, who averages 26 a game, to two points and no field goals in the first half. FW/M only had 10 points at halftime.
“The thing there with Four Winds is you’ve got to push the tempo and make them work on offense and on defense, because they wear down quick,” Klein said. “And I think, for us, the key there is going to be defending Suri and keeping her shots down and forcing her to take tough shots.”
Gourd got going in the second half of that game. She scored 16 after the halftime break to finish with 18. She supported her line with 6-of-6 free throw shooting.
“We’ve got to keep her off the free throw line,” Klein said. “She initiates a lot of contact and gets to the free throw line a lot, and a lot of their points come from the free throw line. So keeping us out of foul trouble is going to be important.”
FW/M, despite a brutal offensive first half, managed to make the deficit as small as five in the third quarter.
It wasn’t too dissimilar from the Indians’ slow start against Carrington in Tuesday’s semifinals. In order to win, head coach Sean Gourd Sr. said they can’t wait for a half before they get going.
“We came in shell-shocked again,” Gourd Sr. said of the first meeting with Devils Lake. “Hopefully we can’t come out three times in a row like that.”
The Firebirds almost completely limited Gourd in the first half.
But, after she figured them out a little in the second half, the Indians have a better understanding of how to handle Devils Lake’s pressure and trapping.
“We know what to expect,” Gourd Sr. said. “The pressure’s going to come, and they’re going to double Suri. Other girls are going to have to handle the ball. And that’s the way it’s going to be. There’s no other way around it.”
He added: “If we can handle that pressure, I think we’ll be okay.”
Getting support for Gourd was an issue on Tuesday. Gourd scored 25 points, the most Carrington has allowed to a single player all season. But the rest of the team only had 21.
For Devils Lake, Tylie Brodina and Presley Brown have been playing some of their best basketball lately. They combined for 37 in the Firebirds’ quarterfinal win over Grafton. They still combined for 32 in their loss to Thompson.
“Tylie’s a shooter. She’s going to try and give her any space, and we’re going to have to stay up on her,” Gourd Sr. said. “Presley just does a lot of good little things. She rebounds, she defends, she attacks the basket. She’s smart. That’s a tough duo right there. But we’re going to try our best here.”
Devils Lake and FW/M will tip off at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the Devils Lake Sports Center.
