The chance to play in the 2025 NDHSAA Division B Boys Basketball State Tournament was on the line as the Velva Aggies faced the Westhope-Newburg Sioux for third place and Our Redeemer’s Knights battled Bishop Ryan Lions in the title match. The state tournament is scheduled for March 20-22, 2025 at the MSU Dome.

The winner of the championship has a straight shot to the state tournament while the second and third place finishers will participate in state qualifying games on Saturday, March 15, at the Minot Auditorium.

D6-1 Our Redeemers 66, D6-2 Bishop Ryan 63

There is plenty of history between the Knights from Our Redeemer’s and the Lions from Bishop Ryan. The Division B Region 3 Championship game between the two on Thursday, March 13, was the fourth meeting of the year.

The Lions won the first meeting 64-58 on December 21 at the Our Redeemer’s boys tournament and Bishop Ryan won the second meeting on the road in the regular season meeting 58-51 at the Castle.

But the third meeting on March 4 was for the District 6 Championship and the Knights took that win 62-57 for the higher seeding coming into the Region 3 tournament.

None of the previous games were as exciting as the Region 3 Championship that needed and overtime period and heroics for the Knights to even the yearly tally with their second win in two weeks over the raucous Lions.

Our Redeemer’s started the game with the edge in momentum despite both teams having first quarter jitters with missed shots and turnovers. The Knights did just enough to hold the 14-13 lead to start the second quarter of play.

Roughly half way through the second quarter of play, the Lions found a groove and began to pull away and led 28-23 at the half.

The third quarter started where the second left off with the Lions holding the slight edge in momentum. The inside attack for Bishop Ryan began to wear down the Knights defense. The five point lead was carved down over the third to a 35-31 lead with one quarter to play.

The Lions and the Knights traded baskets and scoring to start the fourth quarter of play. At one point the gap was two points. With 5:21 to play, Bishop Ryan had swapped two 3-point shots for 2-point baskets and held the 44-38 lead.

The game battled back and forth with the Lions holding a five point lead with less than 40-seconds to play. The Knights hit a layup, then stole the inbounds pass and scored another layup – along with a foul to go to the line to tie the game with 17-seconds left to play. The free throw was good, the game was tied at 56-56 and overtime was needed.

Our Redeemer’s was led by Wyatt Weekley with 25 points while Nolan Schmidt had 20 in the win- none more important than the last layup and free throw in regulation. Payten Lindbo scored ten in the win.

Bishop Ryan was led by Jett Lundeen with 18, including a 3-point shot from NBA range for the Lions in the fourth quarter of play. Ramsey Walz added 16 and Jack Passa hit for 12 in the effort.

D6-3 Westhope-Newburg 62, D6-4 Velva 51

In the only meeting between the two teams in January this year, the Sioux hosted the Aggies and defended their home court with an 83-64 win. The third place game was much closer, but Westhope-Newburg made too many 3-point shots in the end for the win and the chance to play into the state tournament.

The Aggies started the game by controlling the tipoff and the Sioux turned themselves loose on Velva. Westhope-Newburg never looked overwhelmed and played with a patience that many seniors still have not learned to do.

Neither team scored for just over two minutes. The Sioux found the basket sooner than the Aggies. Westhope-Newburg used the favorable time at the half to work over the states for each contest.

Westhope-Newburg worked to end the first quarter of play, competitively with each team working on their own tempo and game style. The Sioux led xx-xx to start the second quarter of play.

Westhope-Newburg applied a full court, man press to start the second quarter of play. Both teams began to find the basket with the Sioux hitting more 3-point shots than the Aggies.

Westhope-Newburg led 34-25 at the half.

Velva charged out the gate to start the third quarter with the first points as well as more energy. Every time the Aggies began to chip away at the lead, the Sioux would hit a shot to keep the edge. With 3:39 to play, the Westhope-Newburg lead was down to 36-34 in the third.

Adjustments were made and the Sioux had the momentum shift back to end the third quarter with Velva in foul trouble. The Westhope-Newburg lead was 47-37 to start the final eight minutes of the game. Velva was never able to gain the ground in the fourth quarter.

The Sioux were led by Walker Braaten with 17 points in the win. Braden Bailey added 15 points while Will Artz added 11 for Westhope-Newburg. Dayton Hawkins and Hunter Tolstad each added eight points.

Velva was led by Ben Schepp with 18 points while Cooper Kittleson and Mason McPeak each added ten in the effort for the Aggies. Reggie Bruner also added eight points for Velva