Devils Lake’s Max Palmer, Mason Palmer (Photo by Noah Clooten)
High school basketball season is upon us.
Girls’ basketball games get rolling this week, with boys’ basketball to follow next week. Teams from the Lake Region have had plenty of success over the first two years of the three-class era. It’s now the third year of the new system, and there will be a ton of talent from the area to watch and follow during the cold winter months.
Here’s a rundown of five storylines that are most prominently on my mind entering the season. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but just points of emphasis to take note of.
Benson County girls bring back core of championship team
Let’s start with the defending Class B champs. The Wildcats return their entire starting five, who made history last year by bringing Benson County its first state championship in girls’ basketball since 1987.
Benson County has a pair of 1,000-point scorers who are now both upperclassmen. Aubrey Kenner, a University of Mary commit, enters her senior year, while Kaitlyn Maddock is a junior. Both are strong shooters. Lacie Fautsch is a talented post who showed remarkable athleticism and maturity as a freshman. She’s a little older now as a sophomore.
Sophomore Addisyn Faul and senior Ella Fossen should round out the starting five. Fossen is one of Benson County’s top defensive players. The Wildcats only graduated one senior, Haley Scevers, last spring — a rarity for a championship team. They’ll have three seniors this year with Kenner, Fossen and Isabella Engstrom, along with a host of sophomores and juniors off the bench.
Benson County has naturally been picked as the preseason No. 1 in both official and unofficial polls. The Wildcats were a little more of an under-the-radar team at the beginning of last year. But, after going 26-2 and winning the state championship, they undoubtedly enter this season with a target on their backs. It will be interesting to see if this robust group can maintain the elite standard of play it established last year.
Many of Benson County’s players are also coming off a strong volleyball season. Four of the five basketball starters were key players on the volleyball team, which went 30-5 and fell one win short of the state tournament.
The Wildcats have put together a really strong group of athletes, and they’ll be the team to beat in Class B girls’ basketball.
Devils Lake has a ton of seniors to replace
On the flip side, you have a pair of Devils Lake teams trying to offset the plethora of seniors they lost.
The now-graduates accomplished a lot. The Devils Lake boys and girls ended long championship droughts in 2024, and both teams made state tournament runs last season as well. With so many leaders from those teams having departed, it’s almost like a new beginning for Firebird basketball.
The boys might have been hit the hardest. Four of their five starters last year were seniors, including the Class A Senior Athlete of the Year, Parker Brodina. He, Oliver Wirth and Joel Nelson were not just good players, but they brought a ton of strength and physicality to the floor. Wirth is playing college football now. The Firebirds also graduated starter Trason Beck, along with one of their first guys off the bench in Fausten Olson.
So, expect a different look to the boys’ team. Devils Lake is still going to score a lot of points between Mason and Max Palmer. Beyond them, there’s going to be some guys without much prior varsity experience. I would expect Bryar Exner, Will Heilman and Ben Brodina to be some of the names in play for starting spots. It’s going to be a smaller and scrappier team, relative to last year, and it will be interesting to see how the less-experienced players can fill in.
The girls, meanwhile, have a top-heavy roster. They return their two best players from last season, including two-time all-state selection Tylie Brodina, who won state tournament MVP two years ago as a freshman. Presley Brown, who’s made the all-state tournament team twice, enters her senior year.
Besides those two, Devils Lake is much less experienced. Last year’s senior class included players like Claire Heilman, Torri Fee, Cabryn Fritel and Jolie Martinson. Now they face the challenge of filling those gaps.
Junior Ava Beck and senior Mia Elsperger have gotten the most minutes among the other returners. You can probably pencil them in as starters. But there’s still going to be a lot more asked of them than last year. Sophomores Emma Hofstad and Dottie Goss have also shown promise, but they have limited varsity experience. Jenae Martinson and Chassidy Rodacker might see increased roles as well. Overall, the roster is much less experienced than last season’s.
Both Devils Lake teams have been at or near the top of their regions over the last two years. Both squads definitely have the pieces to make another run, but it’s a little more of a wild card than previous seasons with the torch being passed down to so many young players.
Can the Four Winds/Minnewaukan boys get over the hump?
While Devils Lake moved “down” to Class A in the three-class realignment, Four Winds/Minnewaukan moved up after years of competing in Class B.
The Indians have had really solid teams over the last two seasons. But they’ve fallen short of the state tournament each year, including a state qualifier loss to Wahpeton last winter.
Veteran coach Rick Smith, a former state champion in Class B, is still trying to lead his team to the Class A state tournament for the first time. With UND football commit Marial Deng in his senior year, and the FW/M co-op ending after this season, now is the time to make a run.
Last year, the Indians almost had more players than they knew what to do with. Depth shouldn’t be an issue, even after losing a seven-man senior class led by Ron McKay. There were a whopping 20 players on last year’s varsity roster. (Granted, some were injured or played mostly on junior varsity.)
I’ll be watching closely to see if FW/M can make that next incremental step to compete in the big dance at the end of March.
Can the Four Winds/Minnewaukan girls build around young star Suri Gourd?
Sophomore Suri Gourd is one of the top players to watch in the state.
The question is whether FW/M can build enough around her to make a girls’ state tournament for the first time in program history.
Gourd already surpassed 1,000 career points last year as a freshman. That was even while missing a few games due to injury. She averaged more than 20 points per game. And she’s been extremely active in the offseason, traveling for various camps and tournaments. It should be exciting for any local basketball fan to see what she can do as a sophomore.
Last year, the FW/M girls’ team struggled to put a competitive product together. But, as head coach Sean Gourd Sr. pointed out several times, it was largely due to some really bad injury luck. By the end of the season, they had four key players on the sideline, and they were relying heavily on eighth and ninth-graders.
The good news is that the Indians return most of their roster. They only graduated one senior, Suri’s cousin Ava Gourd. Cailee Hanson, a solid shooter who scored 8.4 points per game last year, is now a senior. Fellow seniors Kendra Spotted Wolf and Dru Longie should be key components, too, as long as they stay healthy.
Last year’s varsity roster had four freshmen and three eighth-graders — all of whom should be more prepared after getting a year of experience.
Led by a three-time all-region selection in Gourd, the Indians could be an intriguing team to watch if they can put the pieces together.
How will the expanded regions affect competition?
There was a little shake-up to the regions over the offseason.
In each of the last two years, Devils Lake and FW/M have competed in a six-team Region 2. May-Port-C-G and Harvey/Wells County have now been promoted to Class A because of enrollment numbers. The new Region 2 has eight teams, meaning the region tournaments will be extra competitive with more teams gunning for the same amount of spots.
May-Port-C-G poses a particular threat in the girls’ Region 2. The Patriots won the Class B state title in 2024 and went 18-7 last season.
Devils Lake was the Region 2 champion in both boys’ and girls’ basketball last year. The only FW/M team to make it out of the region tournament over the last two years was the 2024-25 boys, who won the third-place game over Grafton.
The Class B alignment also saw some slight shifts. Last year, the area teams in Class B were all in Region 2, but they were divided between Districts 3 and 4. This season, North Star and Langdon Area/Munich moved from District 3 to District 4. This means that all of the Lake Region Class B teams are now in District 4, making up six of the eight teams in the district.
Only four teams from each district can make it to the region tournament. By default, at least two Lake Region teams will be left out of the Class B, Region 2 tournament. It’s going to be extra competitive to see which teams can fight for those spots.
On the boys’ side, New Rockford-Sheyenne is the reigning region champion. But Warwick, LA/M and North Star are all coming off solid seasons and could make a bid. Even Nelson County, which didn’t have a great overall record, looked sneaky at the end of last year.
On the girls’ side, it will be interesting to see LA/M play in the same district as Benson County. You may have forgotten that LA/M actually beat Benson County in the region championship last year. Benson County, of course, went on to win the state championship. But LA/M could be a threat, coming off a state tournament appearance. A bunch of the Cardinals’ players also just won their second consecutive volleyball state title.
Overall, there’s a lot to look forward to in high school basketball this winter. It should be a fun, competitive year of hoops for all of the area teams.
