Bismarck High controls Dickinson en route to 86-41 win

• Sydney Gangl

Press Photo by Royal McGregor Dickinson High sophomore Sydney Gangl, left, is defended by Bismarck High Rylee Meier, right, on Friday night during a West Region girls basketball game at the DHS gymnasium.

Talk about it

The Bismarck High girls controlled the tip to start the game and continued to roll from there.

The Demons used a solid first half to defeat Dickinson High 86-41 in a West Region game on Friday at DHS gymnasium.

Dickinson (1-7, 0-6 West) started the game with a 5-2 lead after a 3-pointer by Ali Moody and a layup from Taylor Cooper.

From there, Moody and Cooper each committed three fouls limiting their time in the first half. Cooper finished with a team-high eight points and Moody had three.

“We came out right away with some energy and we got after it,” Dickinson head coach Dan Pender said. “We got into a little foul trouble. I think it was just a confidence thing.”

When the fouls came, the Demons started doing everything right. Bismarck’s (5-3, 5-2 West) defense was on top of their game and caused 29 Dickinson turnovers.

“We tried to step up our defense,” Bismarck head coach Dallas Hinderer said. “We’ve been getting our defense rolling the last couple of games. We’ve done better as the season has gone along.”

With the Demons’ defense was playing well, their transition game led to some easy shots.

Bismarck’s passing was on key.

“We did have a lot of girls score and that’s always good,” Hinderer said. “I think the biggest thing was our defense got us some easy shots.”

Keisha Engelhardt led the way with 13 points. Naomi Russ and Courtney Trolliey each chipped in 12.

At halftime, the Demons held a commanding 46-22 lead.

Pender’s message was to treat the game like it was starting over.

“I just told the girls at the half, ‘Let’s go back out there like its 0-0,’” he said.

Dickinson shot 14 of 35 (40 percent) for the game. In turn the Demons went 34 of 69 (50 percent) from the field.

Midgets sophomore Avery Privratsky felt like her team’s offense never got rolling.

“I think we did well in the beginning,” Pritasky said. “We just need to run our offense. We really didn’t run our offense at all.”

Pender shared similar views about the offensive performance.

“It was a one-pass shot,” he said. “We can’t have that on the offense. You aren’t going to get very good looks. We just panicked and couldn’t run our offense.”

Dickinson has almost a week off before travelling to Mandan at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Pender hopes the team’s play in practice can translate into game-time situations.

“Our big talk after the game is carrying over what we do in practice into games,” Pender said. “That’s what we are missing right now.”

For box score, see

B: Keisha Engelhardt 13, Naomi Russ 12, Courtney Trolliey 12, Rylee Meier 9, Ashlee Hilzendeger 8, McKenzie Kiefer 7, MacKayla Feeny 6, Kendra Hellebust 6, Brittany Brown Otter 5, Alek Haugen 5, Kylee Leingang 2.

D: Taylor Cooper 8, Riley Cooper 7, Shelby Stoltz 5, Avery Privratsky 4, Sara Spradley 4, Sydney Gangl 3, Ali Moody 3, Riana Cooper 2, Mackee Hoffmann 2, Sierra Rohr 2, Lillie Meduna 1.

Halftime: B 46-22. 3-pointers: B 3 (Meier 2, Brown Otter 1), D 3 (T. Cooper 1, Gangl 1, Moody 1). Free throws: B 14-24, D 10-16. Total fouls: B 20, D 20. Fouled out: D, Moody. Rebounds: B 30 (Engelhardt 5, Russ 5), D 36 (Privratsky 6). Assists: B 0, D 4. Steals: B 21 (Feeny 3), D 8. Blocks: B 0, D 0. Turnovers: B 14, D 29. Records: B 4-2 (West 4-2), D 1-7 (West 0-6).

Tags: dickinson midgets, high school sports, bismarck demons, sports, midgets, preps, basketball