Watford girls up winning streak to 4-0
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
The Watford City girls basketball team upped its winning streak to 4-0 this past week as the Wolves defeated the Ray Jays, 64-37, on Dec. 21.
The next action for the Wolves will be on Thursday, Dec. 30, as Watford City opens its home season when Bottineau comes to town.
Watford City 64, Ray 37
Watford City had three players score in double figures as the Wolves cruised by the Ray Jays 64-37.
The Wolves got off to a quick start offensively outscoring the Jays 21-8 in the first quarter, and then outscored Ray in the next three quarters to take the win.
Jayme Johnson paced the Wolves in scoring with 17 points, while Dani Bates and McKayla Haugeberg netted 13 and 12 points, repectively.
“We forced over 50 turnovers with 39 of them coming from steals,” stated Berton Bates, Wolves’ head coach. “But we have 32 turnovers of our own, so we need to do a better job of taking care of the ball once we get a turnover.”
Watford City led the Jays 32-18 at halftime and then outscored the Jays 15-12 and 17-7 in the final two quarters of play to coast to the easy win.
“While the Wolves shot 24 of 57 from the field and two of eight behind the three-point line, Bates says the girls need to improve their free throw shooting.
“We hit on only 10 of 23 attempts at the free-throw line,” stated Bates. “We need to improve on that area as we head into our district games after the Christmas break.”
Rounding out the scoring for Watford City was Brianna Allex with seven points, Sadie Kieson with six points, Alexis Sanford with three points, while Marti Quale, Shanyce Federicks and Charlie Hystad ended the game with two points each.
Bates and Allex led the Wolves in rebounding with seven and six boards, respectively, while Haugeberg had 12 steals and five assists. Quale also ended the game with five assists.
Watford City 21 32 47 64
Ray 8 18 30 37