Nelson County vs. Devils Lake JV (Photo by Mojo Hill)
DEVILS LAKE — Third, fifth and seventh place were crowned on the final day of the Lake Region Invitational Saturday.
Nelson County and North Star, after battling each other in a barnburner Friday, took seventh and fifth place, respectively. Then Park River/Fordville-Lankin beat Griggs/Midkota in the third-place game. The three games preceded the championship, where Benson County beat Four Winds/Minnewaukan.
Chargers grab their first win of the season
After a one-point loss to North Star on Friday, Nelson County (1-3) got its first win of the season in the seventh-place game. The Chargers beat Devils Lake JV (0-4) by a score of 57-28. The Firebirds ended up taking last place in the tournament.
“Getting that first one under your belt there, I think the girls kind of needed that going forward,” Nelson County head coach Gus Kueber said. “Yesterday was a tough one. … I thought we lost a little bit of our composure and competitiveness, and I think in that second half yesterday against North Star, we were kind of playing more not to lose, instead of playing to win. It’s a hard lesson to have to learn for those kids, but I could tell it really affected them afterwards.
“It would have been easy just to kind of come in and be like, ‘Ah, yeah, it’s day three. We’re in the seventh-place game. We’re tired. We’re young.’ Whatever excuse you want to make. But I thought we kind of came in, we played hard the entire time and that’s really all you can ask out of these kids.”
Each team’s most productive scorer through the first two games of the tournament had a quiet first half.
Devils Lake’s Tenley Triepke, after 23 points Friday, had just two points on 2-for-2 free throw shooting in the half. Kenley Blasey, after 36 points in two days, didn’t score until 3:01 in the second quarter and didn’t have any field goals until less than a minute before halftime.
But some of the Chargers’ other scorers stepped up for them. Cara Sateren made a triple in the first quarter and totaled seven first-half points. Ella Lundeby added a couple of buckets.
“It takes a little bit more pressure off of Kenley,” Kueber said. “Three games in three days, your legs aren’t always going to be there. Kenley’s a very good three-point shooter, but when she was missing, her shots were short. And it’s just not using your legs quite enough there.”
Blasey went 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the second quarter. After her first made triple of the game, she went into halftime with seven points.
“Confidence wasn’t really there in the first quarter,” Blasey said. “And then I realized, I put in the work. I just need to keep going, and they’ll go.”
Devils Lake had seven players score exactly two points in the first half. Nelson County led 24-14 at halftime.
Blasey settled in during the second half, connecting on three more triples. She went 8-for-8 from the free throw line and totaled 22 points on the afternoon. She had 58 in the tournament, second to only Four Winds/Minnewaukan’s Suri Gourd.
Devils Lake only made three field goals in the second half, two from Jillian Frelich and one from Triepke.
Triepke, along with 6-for-6 free throw shooting, accumulated eight points. She totaled 40 over the three days. Triepke and Blasey were both all-tournament selections.
Sateren added 14 points for the Chargers on Saturday. Lundeby scored eight.
With a win under its belt, Kueber said he wants to see his team continue to grab defensive rebounds and lock in on defense as the season moves forward.
“We just can’t beat ourselves,” he said. “If we’re limiting those turnovers and taking care of things, we’re sitting in a good position.”
Bearcats win second straight
After Friday’s 35-34 win over Nelson County, North Star pulled away late in Saturday’s game to earn fifth place. The Bearcats (2-2) won 42-32 over Larimore (1-2).
“Every game we’ve played, our defense has been really good,” North Star head coach Daniel Ahlberg said. “It’s just our offensive struggles, especially in the first half. We just need to unlock what we need to do there. It seems like every game we play, we come out better in the second half. So we’ve got to find the answer to that question. But I’m really glad that we got two wins for these girls, and we’ve just got to keep working and trying to get better.”
The Bearcats didn’t make any field goals until there were 29.8 seconds left in the first quarter. Larimore scored just six points in the first quarter, though, and Claire Weber made a shot to put North Star ahead 7-6. Claire Jorde added a put-back to make it a 9-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
North Star got zero points from its starters in the second quarter. Yet, with eighth-grader Blake Nicholas making her first of two triples, and Genevieve Ahlberg adding four points, the Bearcats clung to a 16-15 lead at halftime.
Larimore’s Aleah Petsinger swished a three to tie it at 22-22 in the second half. From there, North Star went on a 10-0 run and never looked back.
Jorde scored 10 in the second half to finish with 14. Nicholas ended up with 10 points, while Ahlberg had eight.
Coach Ahlberg said the offense is starting to come together a little bit.
“We have this really young team of eighth-graders, and then we have all these older kids,” Ahlberg said. “And they haven’t really ever played together before. So that’s part of the process. We’ve just got to learn how to play together. … That’s just going to take some time.”
North Star’s defense proved to be a key, limiting Larimore’s scoring even when the Bearcats weren’t doing much offensively themselves.
“They’re just working their butts off out there,” Ahlberg said. “They were on them like glue the whole time. … That’s our focus, is our defensive effort. And so far, I’ve been really happy with that.”
The Bearcats know they still have work to do. But grabbing two wins at the Lake Region Invitational was an important first step.
“I just want us to continue to work hard and play together,” Ahlberg said. “And have fun. That’s our goal.”
Aggies take third
Park River/Fordville-Lankin — the loser of Friday’s semifinal against Four Winds/Minnewaukan — took home a third-place victory.
The Aggies (2-1) won 51-40 over Griggs/Midkota (1-3).
Junior Lauren Bell led PR-F-L with 21 points. She was an all-tournament selection at the end of the day. She totaled 51 points over three days.
Senior Kelsey Johnson led G/M with 18 points, including 12 in the second half after a slow scoring start for the Titans. She was an all-tournament selection alongside Kadence Spickler, who scored 10 on Saturday and 43 in the tournament.
Freshman Charley Moen added nine off the bench for the Aggies.
PR/F-L and G/M both compete in Region 2, District 3. They’re in the same region, but not the same district, as teams like Benson County, Nelson County and North Star. Benson County has already beaten G/M twice this season.
