Photo by Mojo Hill
DEVILS LAKE — Sean Gourd Sr. summed it up well: “We got the win. It was ugly, but we got it.”
After coming out strong on Thursday, it was a slower start Friday for the Four Winds/Minnewaukan girls’ basketball team. The Indians didn’t gel early on, and scoring was a struggle. Two of their starters ended up fouling out.
But FW/M (2-0) scratched and clawed its way to a 42-36 win over Park River/Fordville-Lankin (1-1) in the Lake Region Invitational semifinals at the Devils Lake Sports Center.
“We’re still inexperienced,” Gourd Sr. said. “We haven’t really been in some big games, and it’s been a tough couple years. … We’ve got to get smarter on the defensive end of things. We did a few reaches that we should never have had.”
The Indians opened the game in a 5-0 hole. Dru Longie made a three, but FW/M had a measly five points at the end of the first quarter, trailing 10-5. The Aggies guarded well inside the perimeter, and Suri Gourd flung up some long three-ball attempts off target.
“Their physicalness gave us some problems,” Gourd Sr. said. “They’er big. They’re physical. Their guards are physical.”
Still, PR/F-L wasn’t exactly a scoring machine either. The Aggies really struggled to finish drives in the second quarter. Neither team scored until two minutes into the quarter. PR/F-L didn’t make a field goal in the period until 1:19 before halftime.
The Indians went on a 12-0 run to storm ahead. Cailee Hanson made FW/M’s first field goal of the second quarter at 5:32 — a three-pointer. Gourd connected on a deep triple and scored six points in the quarter.
“If it’s a good shot for her, I rarely tell any of the girls ‘Don’t shoot,’” Gourd Sr. said. “Unless they’ve missed five airballs in a row. But basically, if you’re open, and you think it’s a good shot, shoot it.”
Neither team had hit 20 points yet by halftime. But FW/M led, 18-15.
“We could have brought a little better effort and should have been a little more sharp,” Gourd Sr. said. “But so it goes, I guess.”
In the first half, FW/M had been doing a solid job of limiting the Aggies’ bigs, especially standout junior Lauren Bell. But Bell, after only one field goal in the first half, got to the rim for eight points in the third quarter. She singlehandedly opened the quarter on a 6-0 run for PR/F-L.
“Just denying the post,” Gourd said of the team’s defensive focus. “Three-quartering them. My dad told us we have to help side, rotating over and stuff.”
Aubrey Adams hit a game-tying three off the bench for the Indians, and Gourd put FW/M in the lead. The Indians still didn’t have their offense flowing. They only scored six points in the third quarter between two players. They trailed, 25-24, and needed one last spark to get it done.
FW/M was able to come out with the victory largely because of the way Gourd finished the game. She went back to what she does best: driving and finding a variety of ways to make baskets. It also helped that she went 6-for-7 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.
“Coach Rowdy [Waters], he encourages me all the time, tells me the right thing to do,” Gourd said. “And I just have to listen to him, because he knows best for me.”
Despite a slow start, Gourd finished with 25 points. She had 17 in the second half, including 14 in the fourth quarter alone.
“I’m just worried about, other than Suri, we’re going to need somebody to step up and score,” Gourd Sr. said. “Be that second or third option.”
Gourd scored 15 consecutive Indians points in a stretch between the third and fourth quarter. The only non-Gourd points in the fourth quarter were a basket each from Hanson and Gracie Jackson.
“We’re a little inexperienced sometimes,” Gourd said. “I think we just need more scorers to come up and help contribute to scoring. Just drive and kick; I kick the ball to them, they’ve got to finish it.”
After opening the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run, the Indians did enough to win.
It was a little close for comfort for Coach Gourd. Nobody besides his daughter had more than six points.
“We’ll figure it out,” he said. “We’ve got a season ahead of us still. This ain’t the end of the world yet.”
Now, FW/M will contend with Benson County in the Lake Region Invitational championship on Saturday. It should be an interesting cross-division matchup.
“It’s going to be a good game,” Gourd said. “I think we just need to come out with the same intensity as we did in the second half and continue to grind. We’re going to go put some shots up tonight, and yeah.”
The Wildcats return their entire starting five from their champion season. The Indians are well aware of what they’re getting into.
“They’ve got some talent. They’ve got some shooters,” Gourd Sr. said. “[Aubrey] Kenner’s going to be a handful. She gets after it. [Lacie] Fautsch is going to be a big handful for us. She’s strong. She’s solid. She works hard out there. So it’ll be a good challenge for us. I’m ready for it. And I think the girls are going to be ready for it. We’ve got to have a short memory. Even if it’s a win, it’s an ugly one, but we’ll take it, and we’re just going to have to move on and be ready for tomorrow.”
