The Super Bowl is over — and the North Dakota high school girls’ basketball season nearly is, too. This will be the last week of regular season games for the Devils Lake and Four Winds/Minnewaukan girls’ teams.
The No. 5 Firebirds (14-5, 6-2) will complete their season with a home matchup against Grafton (5-13, 2-6) on Thursday. Devils Lake has locked up the No. 2 seed in the Region 2 tournament, which begins next Monday. The Firebirds will get a bye and play their first game on Tuesday, Feb. 13, facing the winner of the No. 4 and 5 seeds — FW/M and Grafton.
The Indians (9-10, 3-6) have two games this week. They’ll play Monday against Carrington, then have a rescheduled game on Thursday against Oak Grove. Even if FW/M were to win both games, though, it would fall slightly short of overtaking Carrington for the No. 3 seed. The Cardinals would be 4-5, while the Indians would be 5-6, giving them a marginally worse winning percentage. Carrington has also locked up a better overall record than FW/M.
If Devils Lake wins its first game of the tournament, it’ll likely have to face No. 1 Thompson, which has gone an absurd 19-0 this year and 8-0 in conference. The Tommies have one game left as they try to complete the perfect 20-0 season, as they play Hillsboro/Central Valley on Tuesday.
A loss to Thompson, though, wouldn’t end Devils Lake’s chances of making it to the state tournament. The Firebirds would play a state qualifier game on Feb. 24 against the third-place team from the Region 1 tournament. If they were to win that game, they’d go to state. Given the records of the teams they’ll be playing, a state qualifier contest is the most likely scenario, though anything can happen come tournament time.
The Region 2 tournament and state qualifier games will be held at Mayville State University. The state tournament will commence at the Minot State Dome from Feb. 29 to March 2.
Highlights
Lake Region State College women’s basketball won on the road Sunday, while the men lost. The women’s team has won 14 of its last 17 contests.
For more on these games and the direction each Royals team is heading in, read here.
Other scores
Men’s basketball
Dawson Community College 93, Dakota College at Bottineau 68
Women’s basketball
Dawson Community College 75, Dakota College at Bottineau 91
What to watch
The lady Indians have their penultimate game of the regular season at 7:30 p.m. Monday. It’ll be the No. 3 and 4 seeds in Region 2 with Carrington and FW/M.
It’s a big week for hockey as well. The Devils Lake boys’ team plays in the quarterfinals of the East Region Tournament on Tuesday in Grand Forks, while the girls have home games on both Friday and Saturday to complete their regular season. The girls’ hockey state tournament begins on Feb. 22. Devils Lake currently stands as the No. 6 seed, which means it would play at approximately 7:30 p.m. against the No. 3 seed.
Also be on the lookout for this week’s basketball polls between 4 and 5 p.m.
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.
