FARGO-This year's Class A Lions All-Star boys basketball team featured North Dakota's all-time leading scorer, Division I commits, Mr. Basketball finalists and all-state players.
Then there was Carter Bonnema, who isn't going to play college basketball anywhere but is going to North Dakota State College of Science for construction management. He didn't believe his basketball resume was strong enough to be picked for the roster, even after playing in the two-game, all-star series.
But he proved he belonged on Tuesday, July 11. Bonnema, the first ever Lions all-star from West Fargo Sheyenne, shot 7 of 9 from the floor and 2 of 3 from 3-point range to score a team-high 19 points to lead Class A to a 109-100 victory over Class B for a series sweep at the Fargo Civic Center.
After scoring three points in Class A's 99-82 win on Monday at the Bismarck Event Center, Bonnema was expecting to score five in this game.
"I didn't really believe I should be here," Bonnema said. "They're all really good basketball players. I just tended to be a little more open today. I was just trying to move without the ball a lot and get myself open so they could see me and pass it to me."
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After falling behind by 12 points at halftime, Class B took the lead about midway through the second half with a 27-12 run over about 10 minutes.
Northern Cass graduate and Valley City State commit Logan Nelson led Class B with 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting and 3-of-8 3-point shooting. Also in double digits for Class B were Steve Redfox of Four Winds with 13 points, Shawn Stoltz of Dickinson Trinity with 12 points and Tronis McKay of Four Winds with 10 points.
"Nobody really gave us a shot, so we had to believe in ourselves or nobody is going to believe in us," Nelson said. "As soon as we got confident, we started going on a run and that was the difference."
But Class A still came back using its loaded roster with a 21-7 run over the course of the next eight minutes to pull away for good. Class A shot 40 of 76 (52.6 percent) from the field to Class B's 50.6 percent. Class A outrebounded Class B 51-29.
"We made a run in the second half to get a little bit of a lead, and it was Carter," Class A head coach Dean Winczewski of Minot said. "He made shots, got on the rim and found open alleys to get layups. He did a tremendous job tonight."
Aanen Moody, a University of North Dakota commit who ended his career with a North Dakota record 2,192 points, was a two-time Gatorade player of the year, last year's Mr. Basketball and a two-time first-team all-state player, totaled 18 points on 6 of 10 shooting including a 3 of 4 mark from the 3-point line to go with three assists.
Siman Sem, a Fargo North grad and a Minnesota State-Moorhead commit, added 12 points and four assists. Sem was a two-time all-state selection and Mr. Basketball and Gatorade player of the year finalist.
North Dakota State commit Jake Mertens from Devils Lake totaled 10 points and four rebounds. Mertens was a three-time all-state player and Mr. Basketball candidate this last year.
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Fargo Davies duo Matt Veit, who's going to play basketball for Concordia College, added 16 points on 6 of 12 shooting to go with six rebounds and three assists while Minnesota State-Duluth commit Jake Paper added five points, a game-high 10 rebounds and three assists. Bonnema said he just wanted to learn to play off the ball and learned to blend with the loaded roster of all-stars. He said he couldn't have asked for a better end to his career.
"It was fun to go out on a bang," Bonnema said. "I'll probably remember this for quite a while. All these guys are super talented. I'm just happy I got to be a part of the game."
Class B: Chandler 5, Redfox 13, Vance 2, Carlow 4, Henningsgard 3, Hanson 9, McKay 10, Nelson 21, Lindgren 8, Stoltz 12, Kamrosky 8, Carr 5.
Class A: Johnson 6, Mertens 10, Veit 16, Moody 18, Sem 12, Bonnema 19, Paper 5, Egg 3, Meyer 9, Meidinger 4, Garter 7.
Half: Class A 66, Class B 54.
