Presley Brown (Photo by Noah Clooten)
DEVILS LAKE — The 2025 Class A Girls’ Shootout wrapped up Saturday afternoon at the Devils Lake Sports Center.
Four Winds/Minnewaukan (1-8, 0-2) continued a trend of close losses for Devils Lake-area teams in this shootout, falling 44-39 to Beulah (2-8). After the Indians and Firebirds combined to go 0-3 in their first three games, No. 2 Devils Lake (8-1, 2-0) capped the shootout with a 72-46 win over Watford City (6-5).
FW/M finished 0-2 in the shootout, while Devils Lake went 1-1.
Game 1: Four Winds/Minnewaukan 39, Beulah 44
The Indians’ losing streak reached eight despite a second-half explosion from Suri Gourd, playing in her second game back from injury.
They led early on and stayed even with Beulah nearly the entire way. But FW/M didn’t have quite enough firepower to get it done in the end.
“We’re struggling right now,” head coach Sean Gourd Sr. said. “We’re still figuring things out. We’ve got some work to do ahead of us. We played harder yesterday than we did today, I thought. I think it’s just our inexperience right now… Our leadership isn’t there right now, I think — other than Suri, who’s playing hard.”
Saturday’s game started much like Friday’s for the Indians, who didn’t record a field goal until 3:23. They turned it over and went down 3-1 at 5:14. But their first successful shot was a three by Cailee Hanson, boosting FW/M ahead 4-3.
Hanson hit another three to give the Indians the grunt of their points in the first quarter. They led 7-3 after one full period, allowing just a lone field goal.
“Cailee’s been playing well,” Gourd Sr. said. “She’s been playing with a lot of confidence. She’s been shooting the ball when she’s open.”
Kendra Spotted Wolf got them going in the second quarter. But Beulah finally started to find its rhythm, making a pair of layups to inch closer. Gourd got her first points with a reverse layup, and Stella Dubois made a bucket right as the shot clock ran out after grabbing her own rebound.
But, up 13-9, the Indians permitted a 9-0 Beulah run. The Miners hit a go-ahead three in that span, and suddenly led 18-13.
Ava Gourd responded with her own three. FW/M trailed 20-16 at the halftime break. No player had more than six first-half points for the Indians, and S. Gourd only had two thus far.
But S. Gourd started the second half on a better note. She made a three while falling down to cut FW/M’s deficit to one. Beulah responded with a put-back and a three to spring ahead 25-19.
A basket by Cameron Bishop and a triple by S. Gourd got FW/M within one again. Bishop committed a foul, though, and Beulah got the ball back and scored the next two baskets to grow its lead to 29-25.
Spotted Wolf successfully converted an and-one to get the Indians back within two. S. Gourd briefly put FW/M ahead with a layup before Beulah made two free throws to close out the quarter.
It was a tight 31-30 battle after three quarters, with the Miners holding the slight advantage.
FW/M struck first in the fourth quarter and had a victory in its relatively-close grasp. Bishop made a go-ahead bucket, and S. Gourd padded the lead with a three. It was 35-31.
S. Gourd’s 16-point second half, which gave her 18 overall, included three triples. She played her best basketball since returning from injury.
“In the first half, I think she was selling a little bit too much,” Gourd Sr. said. “She was selling for that three, and she’s gotta try to attack the basket a little more whenever she gets the chances to. In the second half, she definitely did.”
But Beulah went on another substantial run at an inopportune time for the Indians. The Miners scored nine straight, with a three-pointer on their end and missed shots by S. Gourd and Hanson on the Indians’ end.
“I really think we struggle with physical teams,” Gourd Sr. said. “They pushed us around. We have to step up sometimes and get aggressive.”
Another basket by S. Gourd kept FW/M in it. But Beulah responded, maintaining a multi-possession advantage and forcing the Indians to foul the rest of the way. Beulah only went 2-of-6 from the line in the final couple minutes, but FW/M struggled to finish drives at the rim and couldn’t claw back.
It had very similar makings of the end of Friday’s loss.
“We’re gonna go back to the drawing board tomorrow,” Gourd Sr. said. “We’re gonna have to figure out some things and figure out our roles. And our defensive intensity has gotta pick up. I think we’ve just been lacking that a little bit lately.”
Game 2: No. 2 Devils Lake 72, Watford City 46
At last, Devils Lake finished the shootout with one in the W column.
The Firebirds limited minutes for starters Tylie Brodina and Torri Fee ahead of a big region game against Thompson on Monday. But they got more than enough help from their entire lineup to put a stomping on Watford City. Brodina and Presley Brown each scored 14, while Jolie Martinson had 13 and Claire Heilman had eight.
“We got the bench to contribute a little bit tonight, which was nice,” Devils Lake head coach Justin Klein said. “Found a little bit better flow. I thought our transition passing was much better, and we finished some shots.”
Typical starter Cabryn Fritel sat out the game with knee soreness. But instead of starting Brown, Klein put in Mia Elsperger alongside Heilman.
“Went a little more offensive,” Klein said. “Also, [Elsperger] does a pretty good job in the press. A little bit lengthier. Little bit more length up top. The matchups were a little bit better.”
Elsperger committed a foul on the first play of the game. And so Watford City took a 2-0 lead.
Heilman hit go-ahead three, and the Wolves went ahead 4-3 on a layup. Martinson put Devils Lake back on top, but Watford City hit its own lead-changing three nearly midway through the quarter.
Those were the last points the Wolves scored for a while. With less than two minutes left in the quarter, Martinson swished a triple to put Devils Lake up 8-7. The Firebirds went into the quarter break up 10-7 after a running layup by Elsperger.
And they kept on rolling through the rest of the half. The run extended all the way to 14-0; Ava Beck had a three off the bench, and Martinson made three more points. Watford City couldn’t finish its own drives, and Devils Lake led 19-7.
Brown scored eight points off the bench in the second quarter to tie her with Martinson for the first-half team lead. Dottie Goss also hit a three off the bench. Brodina, with relatively limited playing time, joined the points column with four in the second quarter.
Devils Lake had a couple of sloppy turnovers to start the second half. Brodina turned it on, though, coming up with five baskets in the third quarter to give her 14 overall. Martinson scored four more, including a shot after her own rebound.
Watford City hit four triples in the quarter to narrowly trim Devils Lake’s lead to 55-33.
The Wolves’ comeback attempt was thwarted by Devils Lake’s ability to grab defensive rebounds and get back down the court. The margin never shrunk closer than 18 points in the fourth quarter.
Brown had six points in the final period to give her 14 overall off the bench, tied with Brodina for the team lead. Fee had six points after not scoring in the first three quarters.
“I think we’ve gotta find a spot for her a little bit more,” Klein said of Brown, “and not shuffle around all over. Matchups are a big thing. Some of these players, her and Elsperger, have gotten into foul trouble early, so it’s kind of tough. We’re still figuring some things out there, where to put them, and to start or not to start them. We need minutes out of them. But we also need some offense because of games like last night where we struggled on offense.”
The two-day shootout culminated just two days before Devils Lake’s road matchup with Thompson. The Tommies aren’t as powerful as last year’s team that went undefeated in the regular season, but they’ve still been receiving votes in the weekly polls and are 7-2 this year.
Klein said he hopes to have Fritel practice on Sunday and return to action in Monday’s game.
“They have good guard play, and they move the ball well,” Klein said of the Tommies. “Very strong team fundamentally, and they can shoot it. So we’ve got a big game on Monday, a big challenge at Thompson, and we’ll see what we can do.”
Other scores from Day 2 of the Class A Girls’ Shootout
Shiloh Christian 42, Valley City 58
Rugby 42, Kindred 58
Central Cass 59, Turtle Mountain 72
