- Page 18
The Star
Above: James Keplin flies in for an easy lay-up. Below: Hous-
ton Davis get twoon a put-back against Williston.
‘ Braves 1
(Continued from Page 11)
City for a re—match with Minot. Ear—
lier this season, the Magicians got by
Belcourt on their home court.
l, On Friday, Turtle'Mountain will
face off against Bismarck Century in
the capitol city, looking to avenge a
SEQ-point home loss last month.
Saturday's game will take the
Braves t0 Jamestown. In the last
match-up, the Blue Jays won by 20.
As of today (Monday), the Braves
are sitting in eighth place in the 11—
team West Region. Minot is in first
with only one loss on the year and
Jamestown is second at 10—2. Turtle
Mountain's other opponent this week,
Bismarck Century, is 8-4 and in fifth
place.
Bulldogs took a 24—21 lead into the
half.
The third quarter opened with a
new plan for Rolla and it worked to
near perfection. Coach Chad Leas
put full—court pressure on the Comets
and it led to a breakdown in Rolette’s
offense and a boost for Rolla’s.
Led by Mears’s and Andre Elick’s
two three—pointers each and the re-
emergence of Leas’s scoring ability,
the Bulldogs blotted up the score-
book with 21 points while holding
Rolette to a mere eight.
The press put the lights out in R0-
lette as Rolla bounced back from a
very physical loss to North Star Tues-
day night.
Leas and Xavier Mitchell 'led
Rolla with 13 points each. Mears
added 11 . The Elick twins and Deryk
Thomas each had six points.
Eight players scored for the
Comets with Josh Belgarde leading ‘
the way with nine.
Blake Mattson and Ben Kraft had
eight while Montgomery Grant,
Carter Casavant and Nate Tastad all
putting in four.
Rolette closed out their busy week
with a road game on Saturday in Bot-
tineau.
The hometown Braves picked up
a 70-39 win.
The Bulldogs opened the week
with a wild district matchup against
North Star. The game could be a pre-
view of the type of action teams will
see when the district tournament rolls
around in a couple of weeks.
Both squads had chances to win,
but a familiar lull early in the third
quarter proved to be Rolla’s undoing
in a 91-83 defeat.
After feeling each other out in the
games first couple of minutes, Rolla
caught fire from beyond the three—
point arch. Senior Xavier Mitchell
got it started with a triple. Sopho-
more Mitchell Leas followed with
back-to-back treys and junior Deryk
Thomas added a fourth for the Bull—
dogs.
The scoring barrage helped the
Bulldogs get off to a 25-20 lead after
the first quarter.
Both teams stayed hot in the ‘sec-
0nd quarter but North Star used some
effective free throw shooting to keep
things close. The Bearcats made 19-
29 free throws in the game and only
trailed by seven, 44-37 at halftime.
Throughout the season one of
Rolla ) Head coach ‘ Chas Leas’
biggest cdncerns has been his teams
slow start to the second half. Al—
though Rolla led by seven at the start
of the third quarter, they would trial
by a deuce when it was Over.
Rolla actually didn’t start too
slowly. Thomas came out and hit a
triple on the first possession and Leas
followed with a bucket to give the
Bulldogs a 49-39 lead.
The next three minutes, however,
would be dominated by the Bearcats.
North Star orchestrated a 12-0 run to
turn a 10-point deficit into a 2—point
advantage. Rolla was hit with back-
to-baek turnovers during the run
while the Bearcats offense hummed
at a highly efficient rate. A layup by
Leas snapped the scoring drought but
a three-point basket by North Star
freshman Dane Hagler helped the
Bearcats maintain control of the
game.
Rolla trailed through much of the
fourth quarter and in the waning mo-
ments, the Bearcats’ lead swelled to
seven points. Rolla made one last
push with a quick 5-0 spurt by Leas.
The Bulldogs needed a stop on de-
fense but Hagler was left too open
and buried a three-point basket, es-
sentially sealing the game.
Mitchell and Leas paced Rolla
with 29 points each. Thomas added
19 in the loss.
Ben Wagenman led all scorers
with 32 tallies, including eight in the
Bearcats decisive third quarter spurt.
Hagler dropped 30 in the win.
The Bulldogs capped off the busy
week with an 80-66 win over Max.
The visiting Cossacks came to
Rolla without a win this year, but
thanks to some hot shooting kept the
outcome in question throughout the
game.
Max got off to a good start and led
20—17 after the first quarter.
The Bulldogs cranked up the pres-
HOP LocAL.
EAT LocAL.
SPEND LOCAL,
ENJOY LOCAL.
IT TAKES You T0
START TIIE TREIIII.
SUPPORT THE LOCAL BUSlNESSES
HO SUPPORT THE AREA WHERE YO.
LIVE, WORK AND PLAY.
Above: Logan Elick flew
around the defense of Nate
Tastad for two in Rolla’s win
over Rolette. '
At right: Carter Casavant,
left, tries to shake loose from
the defense of Xavier Mitchell.
sure in the second quarter and
grabbed control of the game. Rolla
hung up 23 points while limiting
Max to only six in the stanza. The
Bulldogs used a pressing defense to
force some Max turnovers while also
knocking the Cossacks out of their ‘
ilhythm offensively when they did
manage to get the ball down the floor.
Rolla opened the lead to 20 points
in the second half but Max got right
back into the game thanks to a 7-0
scoring spurt.
Just as fast as Rollla gave up the
big lead, they regained control and
led the rest of the game.
3 Mitchell Leas cut and drove his
way to, a game-high, 34 points. Xavier
Mitchell added l7 and fellow seniors
Logan Elick added nine, Mathias
Brien finished with eight and Andre
Elick dropped four in the win.
FEBRUARY
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Bulldogs
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