Ava Beck (left), Presley Brown (right)
FORT TOTTEN — A slight lineup change and a slow start didn’t stop No. 2 Devils Lake from slamming a 73-36 beatdown on Thursday.
Facing the Four Winds/Minnewaukan Indians (1-6, 0-2), who were direly missing freshman star Suri Gourd to an injury, the Firebirds (6-0, 2-0) stumbled in the first quarter. They didn’t take the lead until roughly midway through the period.
“It took us a little bit to get going,” Firebirds head coach Justin Klein said. “I mean, Suri not playing, I think it was a different mindset for everybody.”
They sat Cabryn Fritel, who’s been dealing with an illness, and started Claire Heilman, who’s been shooting it well for Devils Lake off the bench.
Heilman stayed hot, coming in second on the team with 14 points. Fritel still got some time off the bench and put up eight points in the first half. Tylie Brodina, despite no field goals in the first quarter and sitting in the fourth quarter, led the team with 16 points.
Devils Lake turned it on late in the first quarter and never looked back, combining a strong defensive performance with a deep array of options on the bench. Twelve different Firebirds contributed to the scoring column.
“I think again, we found out we could go deep into the bench,” Klein said. “We got some help off the bench today.”
Ava Gourd and Stella Dubois led FW/M with 13 and 12 points, respectively. But the Indians just weren’t as deep without S. Gourd. They scored exactly nine points in each quarter.
Devils Lake came out sluggish offensively. The Firebirds didn’t put in a field goal until 5:27.
FW/M struck first on a three off the backboard by Ava Gourd. Devils Lake struggled to finish drives, and both teams got in early foul trouble.
Presley Brown was fouled at 6:31 and made 1-of-2 free throws to get the Firebirds on the board. Their first field goal was a Heilman put-back to tie it at 3-3.
Devils Lake took a timeout at 4:37, still trailing 5-3. It was after then that the Firebirds started to find some sort of groove. Torri Fee tied it, while Heilman made 1-of-2 free throws and had a put-back.
A basket by Cameron Bishop kept the Indians in it at 8-7. It was 12-9 with around two minutes to go in the first quarter.
But the Firebirds hit the gas pedal to cap off the quarter. An Anna Shock block led to a layup by Shock on an Ava Beck assist. Kendra Eckes also joined the scoring, while Brodina, Beck and Fritel made successful free throws.
It was 20-9 at the end of the first quarter.
“Just a combination of everything,” Klein said. “We’ve gotta be a little bit more locked in. But yeah, we finally got going, and we created turnovers. We really had trouble scoring early on, but 20 points in a quarter isn’t horrible.”
The Firebirds only found more comfortable footing in the second. Brodina, who scored just two points in the first quarter on 2-of-4 free throws, put up nine points in the second quarter, including her first of two threes. Fritel found ways to get to the rim, including a steal and a run down the court for a wide-open layup. She scored six off the bench in the second quarter.
In the first half, in which Devils Lake led 41-18, the Indians only had one field goal from somebody besides Gourd or Dubois.
Brodina and Heilman put up five and four more points, respectively, in the third quarter. FW/M just never had a sustained attack that could keep up with a deep group of Firebirds.
Beck scored seven points off the bench in the fourth quarter, finishing with eight overall. Gourd scored five in the fourth quarter, including her third three-pointer, to lead FW/M’s scoring. It bizarrely left the Indians with exactly nine in each period.
“I thought we did a good job trapping and getting loose balls,” Klein said. “We got some tips and attacked the hoop well.”
The win came ahead of Devils Lake’s toughest opponent yet in No. 3 Valley City on Friday.
“I think it’ll be a good test for us,” Klein said. “I don’t like the idea of it’s a back-to-back game here, but I think they got enough rest. [The Hi-Liners]’re a good strong team. Their guards are their weak spot. They have strong posts. We’re really gonna have to do a good job boxing out and keeping them off the offensive boards.”
