DEVILS LAKE — Defense had been the bread and butter of Carrington’s 18-game winning streak.
Thompson cracked that code to win the Region 2 girls’ basketball championship.
The Tommies (21-3) avenged two previous losses to Carrington (20-4), winning 60-38 to become region champions at the Devils Lake Sports Center on Thursday.
“Coming into the tournament, we thought that we were playing pretty good basketball,” said Thompson head coach Jason Brend, who also happened to be celebrating his 50th birthday. “It was kind of a goal of these girls to see [Carrington] again. In order for that to happen, it would have to be the championship. And when you set goals, it’s always fun to accomplish them.”
Carrington beat Thompson in both regular-season matchups, 54-46 and 54-50.
“We kind of know how they are on defense,” Thompson senior Kya Hurst said. “They overplay a little bit. And we knew how to offensively, strategically, go against it.”
The Tommies hit nine triples, including five by Addison Sage. She led Thompson with 22 points, while Hurst had 20. The duo combined for more points than Carrington has allowed to entire opponents on average.
“We were really prepared in practice,” Sage said. “We’ve been working on crashing the boards hard and just knowing our role and working together as a team. I think that’s what we really did tonight.”
Hurst also impacted the game with her physicality.
“She’s an amazing basketball player. She’s such a stud two-way player,” Brend said. “We don’t do this at all this year without her.”
The Cardinals led 13-11 after a 5-0 run to end the first quarter. But Thompson took over with a 14-1 run, which included five straight points from Sage and the first of two triples by Hurst.
Carrington’s last crack at momentum came late in the third quarter, with a 7-0 stretch to make it 43-31.
The Tommies dominated the rest of the way. Carrington didn’t score in the fourth quarter until the 2:58 mark.
“I think it’s just a great display of this team’s hard work throughout this whole season,” Sage said. “We showed up every day in practice, and I think that we were really prepared for this game.”
Thompson, in addition to its penchant for triples, got to the free throw line frequently — and capitalized. The Tommies made their first 14 free throws before finally missing one. They made 15-of-16 overall.
“When you play downhill, and you work your way into the basket, you’re hopefully going to draw some more fouls,” Brend said. “And we’ve been shooting free throws pretty well this entire tournament. So any time we got there tonight, it was a great situation for us.”
Hurst had six of those free throws, in six opportunities.
“We talked about in the huddle, well, on their flip side, that we can’t foul because we don’t want them to get free throws,” Hurst said. “But it worked out in our hands.”
Sage drew the final punch.
She hit a corner three — her third triple of the quarter — before departing the game with 1:56 left. It was 55-33.
“I just looked up at the scoreboard and I was like, it’s an ‘I did it’ moment,” Sage said. “I’m just so proud of us.”
Sage was named the Region 2 Senior Athlete of the Year.
“I’m not trying to sound biased, but I really felt that we maybe had the top two running for that award,” Brend said. “And Sage winning it, she’s very deserving. … She really picked up her defensive game this year as well. There was times where we had her guarding [Tylie] Brodina, or [Jordyn] Carpenter this week. And that’s a tough assignment. So I’m proud of these girls.”
Thompson advances to the state tournament being played at the Jamestown Civic Center from March 5-7.
The Tommies are no stranger to state tournaments. They’ve been to the Division A state semifinals each of the last two years, including a championship appearance last year. In 2023, the final year of the two-class system, they lost in overtime in the Class B championship.
Despite all of those deep runs, Thompson is yet to win a state title.
“This team has a lot of experience, and just this group of seniors is really dedicated and hard-working,” Sage said. “And I think that coming up short these past years is really motivating us to go all the way.”
The Tommies get a week off to prepare for another state tournament run.
“It probably hasn’t fully sunk in yet, even though we have done it before, because every year is different,” Brend said. “There’s no givens. And that’s the one thing with this three-class basketball, is every night’s a tough basketball game. You have to show up and play your A game. And I think we slowly got better and better and better all year long. And hopefully our best is still yet to come.”
Carrington, meanwhile, moves to a state qualifier game. The Cardinals will face defending state champion Valley City at Mayville State University on Saturday at approximately 3 p.m., following the conclusion of Devils Lake vs. Central Cass.
Sage, Hurst and Claire Kolling were all-region selections for Thompson.
Carrington’s Aniston Hoornaert, Marah Johnson and Maara Kutz also made the team. Head coach Andy Braaten was named the Region 2 Coach of the Year.
Johnson and Kutz reached double-digit points with 12 and 10, respectively, for the Cardinals on Thursday.
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