February 10, 2010

Watford girls peaking just in time for tournament play

By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor

Watford City’s varsity girls basketball team closed out their regular season action in a strong fashion as the Wolves went 3-1 this past week defeating Bowman, Parshall and Beulah before falling to Dickinson Trinity.
Watford City will now be advancing to the District 15 Tournament which begins on Thursday, Feb. 11 at the Northern Lights Community Center in New Town. Watford City’s first action at the District 15 Tournament will be at 4 p.m. on Thursday when the Wolves take on North Shore/Plaza.
Watford City 49, Bowman 19
Watford City held Bowman scoreless in the second half as the Wolves rolled over the Bulldogs 49-19 last Monday night.
In a game in which the outcome was never in question, the Wolves got off to an early 13-8 first quarter lead and then outscored Bowman 12-11 in the second quarter to pull ahead 25-19 at halftime.
The second half completely belonged to the Wolves as Watford City held Bowman scoreless during the final 16 minutes of play.
Alexis Sanford had the hot hand for Watford City as she drained six three-pointers to lead both teams in scoring with 18 points.
Rounding out the scoring for Watford City was Shakira McLaughlin and Dani Bates with six points each, Marti Quale and Jayme Johnson with five points each, McKayla Haugeberg with four points, Ashli Foli and Sadie Kieson with two points each and Stephanie Deutsch with one point.
For the game, the Wolves shot 15 of 48 from the field for 31 percent and were good on 13 of 16 at the charity stripe.
Watford City    13    25    32    49
Bowman            8    19    19    19


Watford City 57, Parshall 54 (OT)
Clutch free throws down the stretch proved to be the key to Watford City’s come-from-behind 57-54 overtime win over Parshall last Tuesday evening.
Watford City trailed the Braves most of the game with Parshall holding a seven-point, 45-38, lead going into the final eight minutes of play.
But Watford City would battle back in the fourth quarter to deadlock the game at 51-51 to end regulation play before the Wolves would take the win ouscoring the Braves 6-3 in the overtime.
“We picked up our defense in the second half,” stated Berton Bates, Wolves head coach. “We came from behind to tie it up on a couple of big threes by Haugeberg and solid free throw shooting.”
McKayla Haugeberg led the Wolves in scoring with 12 points while Alexis Sanford netted nine points in the win.
Also scoring for Watford City was Marti Quale, Shakira McLaughlin and Dani Bates with eight points each, Jayme Johnson with seven points, Olivia Sundeen with three points, while Stephanie Deutsch and Ashli Foli ended the game with one point each.
For the game, the Wolves shot 21 of 60 from the field for 35 percent and were good on 10 of 17 at the charity stripe.
Watford City    18    33    38    51    57
Parshall           20    34    45    51    54


Watford City 41, Beulah 34
Watford City picked up its third straight win of the week as the Wolves edged the Beulah Miners 41-34 last Thursday.
“We played very good defense to win our third game in a row,” stated Bates.
In a close game that only saw a two-point difference at the end of the first and second quarters, Watford City opened up the game in the third quarter which saw the Wolves outscore the Miners 11-6 to take a 34-27 lead into the final eight minutes of play. And Watford City would maintain that seven-point difference through the fourth quarter to take the win.
While Dani Bates led the Wolves in scoring with nine points, nine other Watford City players joined her in the scoring column.
Rounding out the scoring for Watford City was Marti Quale with seven points, McKayla Haugeberg and Olivia Sundeen with five points each, Jayme Johnson and Shakira McLaughlin with four points each, Stephanie Deutsch, Ashli Foli and Sadie Kieson with two points each, while Alexis Sanford ended the game with one point.
For the game, the Wolves shot 15 of 50 from the field for 30 percent and were good on 10 of 22 at the charity stripe.
Watford City    11    23    34    41
Beulah                 9    21    27    34

Dickinson Trinity 62, Watford City 42
Watford City just ran out of gas in the fourth quarter as the Wolves fell to Dickinson Trinity 62-42 last Saturday to close out their regular season schedule.
“We were down by just four points, 46-42, with 5:38 left in the game,” stated Bates. “We played extremely hard up to that point.”
The Wolves, who have been playing very well lately, played one of their better games of the season staying close to a very good Titans team.
Watford City trailed Dickinson Trinity by one point, 16-15, at the end of the first quarter before trailing by nine points at halftime.
The Wolves would cut into the Titans’ lead in the third and fourth quarters, but were unable to buy a basket in the last five minutes of the game.
Jayme Johnson paced the Wolves in scoring with nine points, while Alexis Sanford netted eight points.
Also scoring for Watford City was Dani Bates with seven points, Marti Quale and Shakira McLaughlin with six points each, while McKayla Haugeberg, Olivia Sundeen and Stephanie Deutsch ended the game with two points each.
For the game, the Wolves shot 19 of 41 from the field for 46 percent and were good on two of five at the charity stripe.
Watford City    15    22    36    42
Trinity                16    31    42    62

WATFORD CITY WEATHER