FARGO - A little balance went a long way for Lakota-Edmore here Friday.
The Raiders had three players score 11 or more points in beating Watford City 58-41 in the consolation semifinals of the North Dakota Class B girls high school basketball tournament.
Lakota-Edmore meets Kidder County, a 56-53 consolation semifinal winner against Thompson, in the fifth-place game at 2:45 p.m. today. Thompson and Watford City play the seventh-place game at 1 p.m.
Shaye Ronningen had a game-high 21 points for Lakota-Edmore, with Fallyn Freije adding 15 points go with 18 rebounds and seven assists and Mary Haman scoring 11.
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“They were physical,’’ Lakota-Edmore coach Duane Connell said. “But we had the size advantage with the twin towers (6-footers Ronningen and Freije). When teams try to take away Fallyn, we need Shaye to be that other big scorer like she was today.
“Shaye was aggressive, both on catch-and-shoot from the outside and taking it to the basket. And Fallyn created a lot of scoring opportunities for Shaye and the others.’’
Lakota-Edmore, down 17-12 after one quarter, led 32-24 at halftime and 41-37 after three. Haman hit a 3-pointer shortly before halftime “that seemed to send everybody’s confidence through the roof,’’ Connell said.
The Raiders outscored Watford City 17-4 in the fourth quarter to pull away. “We did a good job of pushing the basketball,’’ Connell said. “They were pressure us with three, sometimes four girls. We had girls breaking, getting behind the defense, and we wound up shooting a lot of layups.’’
Kidder County 56, Thompson 53: Kidder County broke a 53-53 tie with a basket with less than 20 seconds remaining and added a late free throw to beat the second-seeded Tommies.
Thompson twice missed 3-point shots after Kidder County broke the late tie.
“It was a real back-and-forth game,’’ Thompson coach Jason Brend said. “We were down by 10 at one point and up by eight at another.’’
Kidder County led 16-15 and 28-24 at the first two quarter breaks before Thompson pulled ahead 40-39 after three.
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Shannon Galegher had a game-high 24 points for the 24-3 Tommies. She was 11-of-14 shooting and also grabbed 11 rebounds. But the rest of the Tommies’ roster was a combined 10-of-40 from the field.
“Shannon played well,’’ Brend said. “We got her the ball inside and she used her quickness to attack the rim. She did a good job of finishing. But we struggled otherwise to hit shots. And we had some good looks.’’
Sadie Rohrich had 14 points to lead a Kidder County offense that had three players score in double figures.
