LANGDON — The lights shut off. The live Bearcat mascot joined the student section, which was packed with red-and-white North Star fans holding up cutouts of players’ faces. The team also had a “Victory” sign for each starter to run through as he was announced, with faint lights floating around the gym to create a dreamy, space-like aura.
It was the atmosphere that every small-town North Dakota kid dreams of playing in. And the No. 1 North Star Bearcats (21-1, 11-0, 8-0) fulfilled that wish on Wednesday at Langdon Area High School, beating Midway/Minto (14-8, 10-5, 7-4) 70-54 to win the District 3 championship.
“It wasn’t easy,” head coach Jesse Vote said with a laugh. “It’s a great feeling. These seniors deserve it. They’ve worked hard for a long time, since they were in elementary school.”
Dane Hagler led with 28 points, surpassing 2,000 career points in the process. So not only did Hagler get to celebrate the district championship, but he received a personalized poster with a picture of him doing his signature dunk. He posed with it for pictures with his family, teammates and coaches after the game — including his fellow 2,000 mate: uncle and assistant coach Jake Hagler.
“My cousin Jake, he got 2,000; my other cousins were in the 1,750 range,” Hagler said. “So there’s some great scorers in my family, and it feels good to finally get that 2,000 mark. I kind of felt a little pressure; I had some injuries throughout the year, didn’t know if I was gonna get there.”
After Monday’s barnburner, it was another shaky start for a North Star team that has rarely faltered. It lost an early battle at the rim, and Midway scored six straight points to go ahead 6-3. The Mustangs forced some stops and didn’t allow North Star to gel offensively right away.
Hunter Hagler hit a three to keep it close at 11-10, but it remained a grind for North Star in the first quarter. Parker Simon missed a pair of free throws and a three-pointer on successive drives. He missed a layup shortly thereafter with his team trailing 15-11, but Brett Dilley had a put-back.
Karsen Simon took a good route to the rim at the end of the first quarter, capping the quarter with North Star trailing 17-15. It wasn’t as deep a hole as Monday’s deficit, sure — but it was another inconsistent start from a team that most would expect to be mowing down the competition at this stage of the postseason.
The Bearcats fought to tie it at 19-19 in the early minutes of the second quarter on two baskets from D. Hagler. They went ahead on a shot by Garrett Westlind before Midway responded to tie it back up.
P. Simon finally had a shot go in for him — a three-pointer, no less, and it was clear by his reaction that it was a weight off his shoulders, as a star who’d been struggling. But the Mustangs fought right back again with a three of their own, knotting it up at 24 apiece.
“He just needs to see the ball touch the bottom of the net,” Vote said of Simon. “And he said the same thing at the end of the quarter. He’s just like, ‘I needed to shoot it.’”
D. Hagler made a pair of free throws to put North Star up 26-24, which solidified his 2,000 points. It’s impressive enough for a player to reach 1,000 in a high school career, let alone twice that. The PA announcer briefly announced his achievement, and the players and coaches all smiled for him and patted him on the back.
“Congratulations to him,” Vote said. “He’s earned it. He’s put a lot of hours in the gym shooting the basketball. And it’s great that he got it in the district championship game.”
Hagler acknowledged the crowd, but then it was back to business. North Star had a game to play, and a tournament to win.
With ice in his veins after reaching the milestone he’s been working his whole childhood for, he made a pair of three-pointers down the stretch of the first half. You could see it all in his face: the unaffected confidence, and the knowing satisfaction of becoming one of the top scorers in Cando history.
North Star led 32-24 at halftime.
“It kind of got me going,” Hagler said. “I didn’t have to think about anything, really. Just play my game and get the shots to fall.”
The Bearcats rattled off an 11-2 run to start the second half. K. Simon swished a three, and North Star increased its lead all the way to 43-26 at a timeout.
Aiden Lunski made eight straight points for Midway after the timeout, fueled by back-to-back three-pointers. But the Bearcats stretched the lead back to 11 by the end of the third quarter.
It was North Star’s game from there, avoiding a repeat of Monday’s dramatics. P. Simon started to find the groove he’s been missing lately, hitting a pair of threes in the fourth quarter. He finished with 13 points overall.
“Just having that confidence back is huge,” D. Hagler said of his teammate. “I think he lost a little confidence in there, but when he gets it back, he’s really a great player, and he can really get hot real quick.”
And it’s Simon, with Hagler leading the way, who’s going to be critical as this team continues its postseason run into regionals. Hagler and both Simon brothers were named to the all-district team after the game. Hagler won the District 3 Senior Athlete of the Year, and Vote won the Coach of the Year.
As the District 3 champions, the Bearcats will face the fourth-place team from District 4, Warwick, in the first round of the Region 2 tournament on Monday. If they win on Monday and Tuesday, then they’ll compete for the region championship on Thursday.
“We have a little bit of a break, but we can’t slow down,” Vote said. “Because hopefully we’re gonna see three more teams if we can get that far — teams that we’ve probably played before during the season, but we just gotta make sure we’re doing our things that we need to do and focus on us.”
