Tylie Brodina (13) / Photos by Noah Clooten
DEVILS LAKE — The Firebirds are quickly back to their winning ways.
After taking a tough loss to now-No. 2 Valley City, No. 3 Devils Lake girls’ basketball won its second straight game in dominating fashion on Monday. The Firebirds (15-3, 7-1) took down Four Winds/Minnewaukan (5-14, 1-6) by a thundering score of 78-34. Three days earlier, they won 66-31 over Hillsboro/Central Valley (7-10, 0-6).
“I thought we shot a lot better, especially at Hillsboro. I even thought tonight, we finished at the rim better,” Devils Lake head coach Justin Klein said. “The competition maybe hasn’t been as strong in these last two games, but a good confidence booster for us.”
The Indians led 12-10 after a slow first quarter offensively for Devils Lake. But a 25-0 run propelled the Firebirds to a lead they’d never let go of. Ava Beck led the team with 16 points off the bench, 14 of which came in the first half. Tylie Brodina scored 12, while Cabryn Fritel and Claire Heilman each had 11. Devils Lake had 11 players total in the scoring column.
Suri Gourd led the Indians with 15, 10 of which she scored in the third quarter.
Devils Lake opened with just one field goal in the entire first quarter. Its defense played tight at the rim and limited open looks, but no Firebird landed a shot from the field after Fritel’s game-opening bucket.
Gourd converted a long three off the backboard for FW/M, tying it at 5-5. The Indians led 12-10 at the end of the quarter, led by five points from Cameron Bishop.
The Firebirds went 8-of-10 from the free throw line in the first quarter to keep it close. But at the end of the period, they were losing to a team they beat by 37 points earlier this season.
“That’s the funk we’ve been in at times,” Klein said. “We got some good shots, I thought; we just couldn’t make anything. A big thing is don’t panic and keep running the offense.”
They started to find a groove in the second quarter. Brodina, who had zero points thus far, landed a three-pointer on a wide-open look. Jolie Martinson and Beck also each landed a triple.
Devils Lake led 35-12 after a 25-0 run. FW/M didn’t score in the second quarter until there was 1:37 left in the half.
“We did change the press a little bit, changed the trapping a little bit,” Klein said. “It probably helped us get a little bit easier buckets. I thought right away, in the first quarter, we didn’t get as many easy buckets off the press.”
The Firebirds outscored the Indians 34-5 in the period. They led 44-17 at halftime. Beck had 12 in the second quarter, giving her a game-high 14 at the half. Brodina scored nine in the second after being held to nothing in the first.
Bishop, FW/M’s leading scorer in the first quarter, sat out early in the second quarter after reaching four fouls already. The Firebirds went 7-of-10 from the line in the period, making them 15-of-20 in the first half.
Nine Firebirds scored in the third quarter. They rode a 14-0 run at one point and stretched their lead into the 40s.
One of those nine was Beck, who led the team in points for the first time this season.
“Ava can hit some shots; she’s been kind of cold, for the most part,” Klein said. “But lately, she’s starting to get into a rhythm. So that’ll help us moving forward. That’ll help free up [Torri] Fee a little bit too, so we put her on the shooting guard. But yeah, Ava stepped up and gave us some really good minutes.”
Gourd was FW/M’s sole source of scoring in the third quarter. After only three points in the first half, she put up 10 in the period, four via free throws. But the Indians couldn’t find much other offense.
“The big thing was, when we’re trapping, to get the ball out of her hands,” Klein said. “Anytime she got it, we were gonna go trap her… She made some tough shots.”
Cailee Hanson made a three for FW/M in the fourth quarter. Bishop also returned and made a bucket, finishing second on the team with seven points.
Devils Lake got 11 points from its bench in the fourth quarter as it completed a well-rounded effort. Its defense was solid all game, even early on when the offense hadn’t gotten going yet.
“I thought we were pretty solid, for the most part,” Klein said. “Even in the half-court defense, I thought we did a pretty good job. We got beat a couple times deep, but overall, I was satisfied.”
The Firebirds will host Wahpeton on Friday as the first of just three more games in the regular season. They have only one more region game, a meeting with Grafton on Feb. 18.
“Obviously we want that one seed next week, playing Grafton,” Klein said. “But I also think Friday and Saturday is big for us. Just, at the end of the year, it’s two non-region games, but they’re at home; senior night and a lot of stuff going on here. Doubleheader on Saturday, too, so there’s gonna be a lot of hype on that. And I think we want to play well there and then move on and get that one seed locked for sure, and beat Grafton at Grafton. So yeah, just looking for consistency.”
