FARGO – Alexis Klabo and Fallyn Freije will be teammates on the University of North Dakota’s women’s basketball team next season but before that, the two North Dakota high school standouts went head-to-head one last time in the Lions All-Star game Wednesday.
Freije, of Lakota-Edmore, and Class B bested Klabo (Fargo Davies) and Class A 62-57 at the Fargo Civic Center. The win gives Class B a sweep after Tuesday night’s 62-39 win in Bismarck.
“If we got beat by 20, we would have come out way harder ... and we knew they would,” Freije said.
Class B took a 31-20 halftime lead but the second half saw more intensity on both sides when Class A managed to cut the lead to two points several times in the second half.
Freije, who got into foul trouble in the second half, said she was anxious to get in in the final minutes of the game. She was Class B’s leading scorer with 20 points and leading rebounder with 10 boards. Class B’s Gabbie Bohl of Minot Ryan scored 14 and grabbed four rebounds.
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“I was just thinking to myself, I have fresh legs and I have four fouls and I just said ‘do everything right now,’ ” Freije said.
Freije came back in with about three minutes left and knocked down a big three to put Class B up by eight. Her future UND teammate Klabo led a counterattack. With 1 minute, 8 seconds left in the game, she cut Class B’s lead to 59-57. Freije responded on the other end, though, with under a minute left, to secure the Class B victory.
“Class A came with some energy tonight and I knew they would,” said Class B head coach Julie Stewart of Minot Ryan. “They made some adjustments and had some different rotations… When it came down to crunch time, we got it done.”
Class A’s offense was lot more effective than it was in Bismarck. The team still struggled to score from the field, shooting 24 percent. Most of the Class A’s first half points came from the free throw line.
“We executed better offensively tonight,” said Class A head coach Ron Metz of Bismarck Century. “We got a lot better shot looks. I know we had trouble scoring there but we got better looks, it’s just too bad those shots didn’t go down for us tonight.”
Klabo was the most effective Class A player offensively, managing to go 10-for-14 at the free throw line and 3-for-11 from the field for 16 points. She also led the team in rebounds with nine.
“We just wanted to come out and compete and do the best we can and just try to do a 24-hour turn around,” Klabo said.
The meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday were the first and last times Frieje and Klabo will play against each other before they play together for the next four years in Grand Forks. They will also be roommates.
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“It was kind of fun for us to play against each other before we go to UND,” Freije said.
“It was fun to compete with someone that you’re going to be teammates with in college,” Klabo added.
