Wolves take second at Roughrider Tourney
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
Watford City’s domination of the Roughrider Girls Basketball Tournament came to an end last Friday as the Bowman County Bulldogs edged the Wolves, 51-45, in the title game.
This week the Wolves will open their home season as Watford City hosts Ray on Saturday, Jan. 4, with Killdeer coming to town on Tuesday, Jan. 7.
Bowman County 51, Watford City 45
For the past two years, Watford City’s varsity girls basketball team has claimed the championship crown at the Roughrider Tournament in Killdeer. And for the past two years, the Wolves have knocked off Bowman County in the title game.
But Bowman County ended the Wolves’ championship streak on Friday night as the Bulldogs edged Watford City, 51-45.
Early on in the first half, it looked like the Wolves would be cruising to their third straight championship win as Watford City jumped out to a 15-8 first quarter lead, and led by as much as 14 points early in the second quarter.
But Bowman County battled back in the second quarter to cut Watford City’s lead to just six points, 28-22, at halftime.
“We got off to a good start, but we just had too many turnovers in the second half,” stated John Zenz, Wolves’ head coach. “As I’ve been telling the girls, we have to shoot better and have fewer turnovers to develop into the team we want to be.”
The Bulldogs continued to build on their momentum into the second half as Bowman County outscored the Wolves, 19-10, to take a three-point lead into the final eight minutes of play. Bowman then capped off the win posting a 10-7 scoring advantage in the fourth quarter.
Watford City had three players end the game in double-figure scoring with Mackenzie Sparby pacing the Wolves with 13 points, while Amanda Mogen had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Kara Langerud each netted 10 points.
Also scoring for the Wolves was Ricki Lindley with five points, Lea Arndt with four points and Kaitlyn Grimes with three points.
For the game, Watford City hit 15 of 59 from the field and was good on 14 of 18 at the free-throw line.
Watford City 15 28 38 45
Bowman 8 22 41 51