Titans defeat Hettinger-Scranton for eighth straight win
There’s a saying in basketball that size isn’t taught. Those with size can sure learn, however, and Dickinson Trinity freshman Brianna Soehren is proof positive of that.By: Dustin Monke, The Dickinson Press
- Katelyn Grinsteinner and Rebecca Oase
There’s a saying in basketball that size isn’t taught.
Those with size can sure learn, however, and Dickinson Trinity freshman Brianna Soehren is proof positive of that.
The 6-foot center continued her season-long improvement Saturday afternoon as she crashed the boards early, scored 12 of her 13 points in the first half and helped limit Hettinger-Scranton leading scorer Casey Joppa early en route to helping the Titans to a 54-38 Region 7 girls basketball victory at Knights of Columbus Activities Center.
“One of my goals is really to go out and play hard, get rebounds and do what’s best for the team really,” said Soehren, who had nine boards and a block.
Trinity (12-4), which won its eighth consecutive game, outrebounded the Night Hawks 43-26. The Titans’ total included 25 offensive rebounds.
“We’re a good offensive rebounding team,” Hettinger-Scranton head coach Kelly Pierce said. “Defensively, we’ve been working on it. We came out and we were spectators a lot when the shot went up, didn’t get on a body, didn’t box out and it hurt us.”
Soehren’s play early helped the Titans build a double-digit first-quarter lead that the Night Hawks (6-9) had trouble trimming.
The freshman ended an 84-second Trinity possession to start the second quarter with a jumper from near the free-throw line and added a put-back shot in the post minutes later.
Junior Rachel Jahner then hit the first of her five 3-pointers to expand the Titans’ lead to 27-13 with 3:07 left in the second quarter.
Jahner finished with 16 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals, a typical night for the 5-5 guard.
Junior Katelyn Grinsteinner notched a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
“When you have kids like Rachel Jahner and Katelyn Grinsteinner getting as many boards as they did, that’s huge for us,” Trinity head coach Alysia Barman said. “Rachel has worked hard from baseline to baseline every single possession and against steps up and knocks down big shots for us, distributes the ball well and defensively does so many nice things and rebounds for us.”
Jahner was there for the Titans when it looked like Hettinger-Scranton was going to make a charge and begin chipping away at their lead.
She had back-to-back 3-pointers within a minute of each other late in the third quarter that gave Trinity a 43-27 lead.
While Joppa finished with a team-high 16 points on 6 of 11 shooting, the sophomore who starts the game on the bench had just four points in the first half as Soehren and Trinity’s man-to-man defense made it difficult for her to generate good looks.
“We rely on her to score a little bit for us,” Pierce said. “She just started out slow because of that. We haven’t seen any man and we just didn’t get into a flow. It’s something we’ll learn from.”
Next up for Trinity is its final District 14 game of the regular season, a Valentine’s Day matchup at Killdeer. The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday.
Soehren said Trinity needs to continue having efforts like it has had its past two games — it beat Richardton-Taylor 82-41 on Thursday — if it wants to continue building its win streak.
“I think we just need to keep going out, playing strong and hopefully we’ll come out with wins every time,” Soehren said.
HS 10 17 28 38
Trinity 20 34 45 54
HS: Casey Joppa 16, Bailey Sadowsky 8, Kaitlyn Olson 7, Kaitlin Reitz 7.
T: Rachel Jahner 16, Kateyn Grinsteinner 13, Brianna Soehren 13, Kennedy Keator 6, Gretchen Weir 4, Jillian Stockert 2.
3-pointers: HS 2 (Joppa 2), T 7 (Jahner 4, Grinsteinner 2). Free throws: HS 6-14, T 5-9. Total fouls: HS 13, T 16. Technical fouls: HS, Nicole Weaver. Rebounds: HS 26 (Michaela Erickson 4), T 43 (Grinsteinner 10). Assists: HS 6 (Olson 3), T 15 (Jahner 5). Steals: HS 5 (Joppa 2, Reitz 2), T 6 (Jahner 4). Blocks: HS 0, T 2 (Soehren, Weir). Turnovers: HS 13, T 15.
Tags: trinity titans, high school basketball, hettinger-scranton night hawks, night hawks, sports, titans, preps, basketball
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