Kari Gibb/MDN Bishop Ryan Lion Jett Lundeen (31) drives past Westhope-Newburg Sioux defender Rocklin Beaudrie (1) and is defended on the shot by Sioux defenders Trayton Lesmann (5) and Dayton Hawkins (11) in the third quarter of the first semifinal game of the District 6 Boys Basketball Tournament on Monday, March 3, at the Minot Auditorium.

Day two of the District 6 Boys Basketball Tournament tipped off on Monday, March 3, at the Minot Auditorium with two consolation bracket games to keep Region 3 qualifying hopes alive as well as two semifinal games.

The competition was stiff on both sides of the bracket on day two.

Bishop Ryan will face Our Redeemer’s in the final today. Westhope-Newburg will play Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood in one of the two region qualifying games today while Velva will face Harvey-Wells County in the other.

The first region qualifying match between Harvey-Wells County and Velva will be at 4:30 p.m. while the second between Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood and Westhope-Newburg will follow that 20-minutes later.

The championship between Our Redeemer’s and Bishop Ryan will be the final matchup of the evening today.

No. 3 Bishop Ryan 49, No. 2 Westhope-Newburg 40

With all four of the teams in the semi final games for the District 6 Boys Basketball Tournament in the top ten for the state, there would be no easy path for anyone.

The first semifinal game proved to be just as competitive as the regular season meetings between the Lions and the Sioux.

In the first quarter of play, Westhope-Newburg clamped down on the inside game and kept points in the paint for the Lions to a minimum. The Lions responded with 3-point shooting- by Jett Lundeen in particular- to hold the 11-7 lead going into the second period of play.

Roles were reversed for the second quarter of play as the Lions turned on the rebounding with Ramsey Walz working body on body inside for Bishop Ryan. The Sioux responded with outside shooting, trap defense and ball movement to keep pace.

With 2:24 to play in the half the score was tied 19-19 until Lundeen hit another 3-pointer for the 22-19 lead. Westhope-Newburg responded with a drive to the hoop by Braden Bailey that drew the foul along with one of the two free throws made.

The Lions took the 22-20 halftime lead into the break.

The third quarter kicked off with high intensity by both teams as neither was ready to submit to the other. The Lions attacked the inside game while the Sioux worked the defensive and outside shooting game.

Each team held the lead as the score swapped back and forth for the first half of the third quarter. Bishop Ryan found a shift in the game in the second half of the third quarter to take the 32-28 lead until Westhope-Newburg clawed back into a one score game.

The score was 32-31 for Bishop Ryan with 1:03 to go and the Sioux were at five fouls. Two missed free throws by the Lions and an inside pass for a layup led the Sioux to the 33-32 lead with one quarter to play.

The fourth quarter started with Westhope-Newburg holding onto the momentum shift found at the end of the third. The momentum lasted to a 36-32 lead only to see the Lions rework the shift into their favor and a 37-36 lead, possession of the ball and a timeout at the 4:58 mark in the game.

The swing towards Bishop Ryan was strong as they hit a short shot and a 3-pointer while the Sioux missed a layup and a 3-pointer with the Lions holding the 42-36 lead and possession of the ball.

Timeout was called by Westhope-Newburg at the 3:07 mark to regroup. The Sioux were in foul trouble and could not get a break in the game tempo established by Bishop Ryan.

Westhope-Newburg was unable to steal back the momentum or the vibe for the win as the Lions did enough to keep the lead to the end.

Bishop Ryan was led by Lundeen with 18 points, 12 of those from 3-point shots. Walz hit for 14 points, all in the second and third quarters.

Westhope-Newburg was led by Dayton Hawkins with 11 points while Walker Braaten had eight as well. Hunter Tolstad added seven in the effort for the Sioux.

The Lions will face the Knights in the District 6 Boys Basketball Tournament Championship game today.

Westhope-Newburg will take on Velva in the region play-in game today as well.

If the Sioux are going to repeat as state champions, they will need to fight their way back into the state tournament via the Region 3 play-in slot and attack the state tournament that route.

No. 1 Our Redeemer’s 64, No. 4 Velva 36

The Our Redeemer’s Knights used a large second quarter to build a 23 point advantage that left the Velva Aggies playing catch up the rest of the game.

While Velva won the tip, the first score of the game went to the Knights as they went on a 8-0 run before the Aggies found the net. Our Redeemer’s built a 12-4 lead when Velva called a timeout at the 2:37 mark.

The Knights used steals, rebounding and solid shooting over the Aggies on the way to the 17-6 lead at the end of the first quarter of play.

The second quarter of play was all about 3-point shooting by Our Redeemer’s and the shooters touch on anything inside the paint by the Knights enroute to the 42-19 lead at the half over the Aggies.

Our Redeemer’s outscored Velva 25-13 in the second quarter with 15 from 3-point shooting.

Velva showed their resilience to start the second half with the first two points in the third quarter and went on a 5-0 run before the Knights responded. By the final minutes of the third quarter, the energy levels for both teams had dipped with shots being missed by both teams.

Our Redeemer’s were able to maintain a 50-30 lead going into the final quarter of play.

Both teams were competitive to the end, with physical play by both starters and bench rotation players. The scoring was slower by each team in the fourth as well. In the end, the gap was too large to close by the Aggies.

Our Redeemer’s was led by Wyatt Weekly with 15 points, nine from the arc, while Nolan Schmidt added 14 points in the win. Jace Weekly also hit for 12 points while Andrew Eby hit for 11 points in the paint.

Velva was led by Ben Schepp with 12 points while Wes Nickelson added nine and Cooper Kittleson had eight in the effort by the Aggies.

Our Redeemer’s will face Bishop Ryan in the District 6 Boys Basketball Tournament Championship game today while Velva will face Harvey-Wells County in the region play-in game today as well.

No. 7 Harvey-Wells County 47, No. 6 TGU 46

The game between No. 6 and No. 7 led to a tight contest on the court in the first game of the day on the consolation bracket side of day two. Ultimately the game would come down to who had the ball for the final shot and the win.

Nearly half of the first quarter ticked way with game time jitters, turnovers and missed shots highlighting things until a 2-2 tie at the 4:42 mark of play. The score did improve to a 9-6 lead for the Titans at the end of the first quarter of play.

The story of the start of the game was Harvey-Wells County missing shots while TGU had the ball rattle in on the other end of the court.

Each team used a press defense to cause turnovers – man defense for the Hornets and zone for the Titans – for the second quarter of play. The shooting touch for TGU continued while Harvey-Wells County struggled to get the same luck from the rim.

The Titans turned their shooting luck into a 23-16 lead at the half.

If the Hornets hoped it was the rim on the south side of the court that was unlucky for shooting, the north end was not much kinder to start the second half as the shooting woes continued in the third quarter of play.

The Titans found the south end rim to work as the shots kept falling to start the third as TGU played to a 30-28 lead as the teams started the fourth quarter of play.

For the fourth quarter of play, the teams traded leads from the 3:25 mark with TGU holding the 37-36 lead. The game was tied at 41-41 with 1:38 to play. TGU led 43-41 with 1:01 to play. Harvey-Wells County led 44-43 with 33.9 seconds to play. TGU led 45-44 with 21.4 seconds to play. The Hornets led 47-45 with 7.4 seconds to play.

The south rim ended up being the difference in the game for No. 7 Harvey-Wells County in the end as TGU missed the front end of a pair of free throws allowing the Hornets to take the one point win.

Harvey-Wells County was led by Avery Williams with 17 points while Noah Ziegler with nine points in the game. Both Jallen Thorson and Tyler Swang added seven points each for the Hornets.

TGU was led by Jaxon Nelson with 23 points. Karson Haman added 14 in the effort for the Titans.

The Hornets will face the Aggies today for the right to continue to the Region 3 tournament.

No. 5 MLS 61,

No. 8 Surrey 49

The second consolation game of day two at the District 6 Tournament between No. 5 and No. 8 did not start the same as game one. The Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood (MLS) Mavericks started their offense early and kept the edge to the 19-9 lead at the end of the first quarter of play.

Solid rebounding by MLS kept the Mavericks in front during the second quarter of play, despite the efforts of the Vollmer boys from Surrey. The Mustang Vollmer crew kept pace the best they could, but MLS outscored Surrey 19-9 in the second quarter of play as well for the 38-18 halftime lead.

The second half started where the first half left off with MLS out rebounding the Mustangs and the Vollmer boys working to narrow the gap with the Mavericks.

With 2:53 to play the Mavericks called a timeout as Surrey defense was swarming with MLS up 42-29 as the Mustangs kept chipping away. MLS held on for the 46-35 lead going into the fourth quarter of play.

Surrey kicked off the fourth quarter with a surge in effort as the time ticked away. As the Mavericks lead dipped to nine, MLS called timeout with 5:51 to play and the 50-41 lead.

In the end, too many missed free throws and turnovers down the stretch kept the Mustangs from getting closer than five points with 3:49 left in the game.

The Mavericks were led by Reid Morlock with 19 points in the win. Eli Undlin added 14 while Grady Nett posted 12 for the Mavericks.

The Mustangs were led by Gavin Vollmer with 21 points while Colin Vollmer added 11 points in the game. Brycen Vetter also hit seven points for Surrey.

MLS will face Westhope-Newburg today to stay alive in the hunt for the Region 3 tournament play-in.