It wasn’t the prettiest game, or the smoothest ride to the finish line. But the No. 4 Devils Lake girls’ basketball team (10-4, 4-2) snatched a key victory over the second-place Carrington Cardinals (11-4, 4-3) in a Region 2 matchup at Devils Lake Sports Center Tuesday night. The Firebirds trailed by as many as 12 points in the third quarter but pulled out a 52-44 win in the end.
“It’s good anytime you can win at home in front of a nice crowd,” head coach Justin Klein said. “It’s a big win, especially in a region game. That was big for us because that kind of locks up the two spot, which would mean we would get a bye the first night of the region [tournament].”
Devils Lake’s first basket came about two minutes into the game on a layup from under the basket by Jolie Martinson, who scored the Firebirds’ first four points of the game. The teams traded layups and leads early on. Devils Lake worked up a 12-7 advantage, but Carrington came back to tie it at 12 near the end of the first quarter. A shot by Cabryn Fritel put the Firebirds narrowly in the lead before the buzzer.
It was a messy start to the game, with both teams turning the ball over, often on the same play. The first half saw a whopping 35 combined turnovers — 17 against Devils Lake and 18 against Carrington.
“I thought it was real sloppy on our part. I don’t know if we were rushing things or what,” Klein said. “We didn’t have a good pregame yesterday or a good practice, and that kind of carried in. We just went through the motions.”
That narrow lead Devils Lake was holding onto slipped away in the second quarter. The Cardinals put up their second game-tying three to make it 16-16 as part of an 8-0 run, putting the Firebirds behind 20-16. Steals, along with some makeable layups that Devils Lake couldn’t capitalize on, continued to define this game.
At the half, the Firebirds trailed 29-24.
“They were aggressive. They were stronger than us,” Klein said. “They just outworked us.”
And the second half didn’t start much better. It took more than four and a half minutes for Devils Lake to score, not making a basket until the 3:23 mark in the third quarter. The Cardinals couldn’t exactly find their best rhythm either and missed some shots that could have really blown things open, but they still went on a 7-0 run, climbing their lead up to 36-24.
“We dug ourselves in a pretty deep hole,” Klein said. “Finding any way to score consistently; that’s been an issue. At times we look really good, and at times we don’t know where the basket’s at.”
But then Ava Beck made a layup — a fairly innocuous shot at the time that ended up kickstarting a comeback.
“When you hit a shot or two, or you get a steal and it turns into that momentum; I think just momentum-wise was huge,” Klein said.
Four points by Torri Fee helped churn out a 10-0 Devils Lake run. With 3.5 seconds left in the quarter, Claire Heilman missed a shot but got the rebound and induced a foul, then made both her free throws. The stretch cut the deficit all the way down to 39-37, and it was 41-37 at the start of the fourth quarter.
The Cardinals didn’t score a single basket in the final quarter — all they got was a trio of free throws. The first two free throws followed a Gabrielle McLaurin basket, but Devils Lake went on another 10-0 run to soar into the lead and never look back. Fee, after bringing the deficit within two, landed a go-ahead three-pointer. She led Devils Lake’s scoring with 14 points.
“She’s kind of struggled lately,” Klein said. “Hopefully this is gonna be a step in the right direction for her because she didn’t score against Thompson. She took the ball, and the leadership that we need to see out of Torri.”
Lost in the chaos — and thankfully for Devils Lake, overshadowed by the win — was Tylie Brodina fouling out in the fourth quarter. Brodina, who at times has carried this team but has been “streaky,” by Klein’s admission, finished with zero points in the game.
“You just gotta get back in the gym and shoot,” Klein said. “Just get back after it. It’s one game. It’s over. It’s done with. Now we gotta get ready for Central.”
Going back to the third quarter, Devils Lake finished the game on a 25-5 stretch. The Firebirds limited their turnovers to eight in the second half, while Carrington had 13. The Cardinals controlled large portions of the game but couldn’t get anything going in the final eight minutes of gameplay. Devils Lake ended up winning by multiple possessions with its eight-point margin of victory.
The Firebirds’ next opponent is Grand Forks Central, a Division AA team. Tip-off is scheduled for this Friday at 7:15 p.m. at Devils Lake Sports Center.
Joseph “Mojo” Hill is a reporter covering Lake Region sports for the Devils Lake Journal. Contact him on Twitter @mojohill22 or at jhill@devilslakejournal.com for any tips, questions or story ideas.
