Wolves extend winning streak to seven games
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
The Watford City varsity boys basketball team may have gotten off to a slow start, but they are now on a winning streak. The Wolves lost their first four games to open the season, but have now put together a seven-game winning steak to improve their season record to 7-4.
This past week, the Wolves edged Trinity Christian, 55-52, and then rolled over Divide County, 74-36.
Watford City’s next action will be on Thursday, Jan. 29, when the Wolves travel to New Town.
Watford City 55, Trinity Christian 52
In spite of horrible shooting, Watford City squeaked out a 55-52 win over Trinity Christian last Monday.
“This may have been the worst shooting I have seen in my coaching and playing career,” stated Randy Cranston, Wolves’ head coach. “But a win is a win, and we will take it.”
The Wolves only hit on 17 of 50 attempts from the field against the Crusaders, and connected on only two of 16 attempts from behind the three-point line.
But in spite of their poor shooting, the Wolves, who trailed throughout the contest, managed a late rally in the fourth quarter to take the come-from-behind win.
“We finally got going a bit in the fourth quarter where we scored 23 of our 55 points,” states Cranston. “All in all, we found a way to win on a night we didn’t play to our potential, mostly on the offensive side.”
Watford City trailed the Crusaders, 12-10, at the end of the first quarter, and by eight points, 30-22, at halftime.
Fortunately for the Wolves, Trinity Christian didn’t have a very productive third quarter, which allowed Watford City to cut its deficit to four points, 36-32, going into the final eight minutes of play.
Free throws proved to be the one bright spot for Watford City in the fourth quarter as the Wolves canned 10 of 11 attempts in the final stanza to make up for their poor shooting from the field.
David Kline paced the Wolves in scoring with 25 points, while Logan Fettig netted nine points in the win.
Rounding out the scoring for Watford City was Cameron Runnels with six points, Seth Indergard and Bo Cook with five points each, Cole McGorman with four points and Korbin Knutson with one point.
Watford City 10 22 32 55
Trinity Christian 12 30 36 52
Watford City 74, Divide County 36
Watford City had four players score in double figures on Saturday as the Wolves crushed the Divide County Maroons, 74-36.
In a lopsided game, the Wolves jumped out to a 23-8 first quarter lead, and then never looked back as they coasted to the easy win.
Cole McGorman had the hot hand for the Wolves as he led both teams in scoring with 21 points, while Seth Indergard netted 13 points. Also in double-figure scoring for Watford City was Logan Fettig and Bo Cook with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
“A high scoring first half and a pressure defense led us to another victory,” stated Cranston. “Cole McGorman led the way early for us as he scored 21 points, hitting five three-pointers.
Watford City extended its lead to 29 points, 46-17, at halftime and by 31 points at the end of three quarters of play.
“I felt we played pretty solid the first half on both sides of the floor,” stated Cranston. “We created a lot of turnovers which led to easy baskets in the first half.”
Also scoring for Watford City was David Kline with five points, Korbin Knutson with four points, while Cameron Runnels, Jarek Houge, Devyn Marquardt and Dane Dixon ended the game with two points each.
Watford City 23 46 59 74
Divide County 8 17 28 36