Photo via Devils Lake Girls’ Basketball on Facebook
In a reversal of last year’s results so far, the A/B girls won and the A/B boys lost on the first day of the 2025 Lions All-Star basketball series. The opening games were held in Bismarck on Monday.
The A/B girls took down the AA girls 101-73, helped out by Devils Lake’s own Torri Fee. The boys, co-coached by Dustin Brodina and featuring Devils Lake’s Parker Brodina and Joel Nelson, fell 99-76 to the AA boys.
It was the first of a two-day series that concludes Tuesday at Fargo South High School at 6 p.m.
Girls: A/B 101, AA 73
After losing both games of the All-Star series last year, the A/B girls rode an offensive explosion to take the win on Monday.
Every player on the A/B roster scored in the triple-digit onslaught. Fee had nine points, all in the second half. Bowman County’s Sophia Headley led the squad with 23 points, with four triples and 16 second-half points. Bottineau’s Kyra Beckman added 15. The team totaled 16 three-pointers.
On the losing side, Bismarck Legacy’s Brooklyn Felchle led the AA team with 21 points. Bismarck Century’s Zoie Austin, a Lake Region State College commit, scored 12 points. But the AA team was hurt by more than 30 turnovers.
What’s not reflected in the final score is that the A/B girls started off slowly. They were overshooting their three-ball attempts out of the gates and didn’t score until over four minutes into the game.
Fee had an offensive rebound that helped Shiloh Christian’s Betsy Hatlestad tie it up. Down 12-9, the A/B girls rode a 14-0 run that included back-to-back threes from Hettinger/Scranton’s Laela Jensen.
The AA team, though, fought back with a 13-0 run to climb back ahead. Felchle had a double-double in the first half alone with 14 points and 11 rebounds. AA held a narrow 39-36 lead at the end of the first half.
The second half was all A/B, ignited by an 11-0 run to start the period. Fee had two baskets and a steal in this stretch. The recent Devils Lake graduate is set to continue her basketball and volleyball careers for LRSC next year.
Headley and Beckman each made three triples in the second half. Fee also made one as the A/B girls grew their lead into the 20s. Her two free throws got the team to the 80-point threshold. A basket by Headley put the squad past the century mark with seconds left.
Boys: AA 99, A/B 76
The A/B boys, co-coached by D. Brodina for the second straight year, couldn’t find the same offensive firepower as when they won both Lions games last summer.
They were notably without Kindred’s Presley Peraza, who sustained a concussion during the practices leading up to the event. Tioga’s Brennan Johnson took his place.
Nelson and P. Brodina were limited to eight and five points, respectively. Minot’s Payton Schnell scored 24 points for the AA team, with exactly 12 in each half. Mandan’s Hudson Sheldon added 18. For the A/B team, Jett Lundeen from Bishop Ryan led the squad with 22 points, while Kindred’s Karson Ouse had 14.
Garrison’s Little Hail Perkins, an LRSC commit, scored two points on 2-of-2 free throws in the first half.
It took almost two and a half minutes for either team to score, with the A/B squad going up 5-0. The AA team finally scored at 16:23 on a dunk by Schell.
Nelson was fouled after getting his own rebound, but he missed both free throws. He went 0-of-5 from the free throw line on the night.
After AA went up 6-5, Grafton’s Kyler Droog sparked a 7-0 run in A/B’s favor. But Bismarck Legacy’s Parker Falcon hit a pair of threes for the AA team, helping it maintain a slight lead.
Schell later hit back-to-back threes to run the AA advantage into double digits. Down by 15 at one point, Nelson passed it to his Region 2 foe Droog, who got A/B back in the scoring column. Nelson made another nice pass back to his Devils Lake teammate Brodina, who swished a three for his first points of the night, late in the first half.
Nelson finished with three field goals in the first half.
Lundeen scored the first six A/B points of the second half, and Brodina made a tough shot while falling backwards to keep the team within 12.
Ouse scored nine points in the second half, including a late dunk. The AA team, though, retained control. Sheldon exploded towards the end with a three-pointer sandwiched by two dunks. The AA team fell just short of the triple-digit mark in a commanding win over the A/B boys.
The Lions All-Stars travel a little closer to Devils Lake on Tuesday with another two-game set at Fargo South High School. The girls’ game starts at 6 p.m., followed by the boys’ action at approximately 8 p.m.
