February 24, 2015

Watford boys head to district basketball tourney

By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor

The Watford City varsity boys basketball team wrapped up its regular season this past week with a pair of losses as the Wolves dropped games to Parshall and Killdeer.
The Wolves, who have a 9-10 season record, will now be advancing to the District 15 Tournament as the Number 3 seed. The tournament will be played Feb. 27, 28 and March 2 at the New Town High School with Watford City taking on No. 6-seeded Lewis & Clark at 7 p.m. in opening round action.
The top four teams from the district tournament will advance to the Region 8 Tournament on March 9, 10 and 12 at Williston State College.

Parshall 63, Watford City 52
Watford City came up on the short side of the column last Tuesday in a key District 15 matchup against  Parshall, with the Wolves falling to the Braves, 63-52.
The Wolves got off to a slow start and never really challenged Parshall as Watford City trailed the Braves, 10-6, and by 16 points, 33-17, at halftime.
“We got off to a slow start and didn’t score until there was 90 seconds left in the first quarter,” stated Randy Cranston, Wolves’ head coach. “We got out-rebounded and out-worked in the first half.”
David Kline paced the Wolves in scoring with 18 points, while Seth Indergard netted nine points in Watford City’s losing effort.
While the second half was much closer, the Braves were able to increase their lead to 17 points, 48-31, at the end of three quarters of play, before the Wolves were able to make a late rally in the fourth quarter.
“The players turned it on in the fourth quarter to cut a 21-point lead down to nine points with around 2:30 left in the game,” stated Cranston. “We just couldn’t get past the first half struggle.”
Rounding out the scoring for Watford City was Cole McGorman, Jarek Houge and Cameron Runnels with six points each, Logan Fettig with four points, while Bo Cook ended the game with three points.
For the game, the Wolves were good on 14 of 38 attempts from the field and hit on three of 17 from three-point range. At the free-throw line, Watford City was good on 15 of 19 attempts.
“Our kids can compete with Parshall and New Town, we just need to put together a full game of taking care of the ball, rebounding, defense and finding ways to score,” stated Cranston. “Hopefully, come tournament time, that all starts to click.”
Watford City    6    17    31    52
Parshall         10    33    48    63


Killdeer 55, Watford City 31
While Watford City got on the scoreboard first against Killdeer on Thursday, the Cowboys pretty much controlled the remainder of the game en route to a 55-31 win as the Wolves ended their regular season play with a 9-10 record.
Killdeer would lead the Wolves, 20-11, at the end of the first quarter, and then outscored Watford City, 13-7, in the second stanza to take a comfortable, 33-18, lead into the lockers at halftime.
In a very low scoring third quarter, the Cowboys outscored Watford City, 7-6, and then coasted to the easy win.
David Kline paced Watford City in scoring with 10 points, while Cameron Runnels netted five points.
Also scoring for the Wolves was Seth Indergard, Charlie Villanueva and Logan Fettig with four points each, Cole McGorman with three points, while Jayden Vaupel netted one point.
Watford City    11    18    24    31
Killdeer             20    33    40    55

WATFORD CITY WEATHER