Neither team shot particularly well in the first half, but the Bismarck St. Mary’s girls basketball team cleaned up after halftime and ran away with a 72-43 win over Dickinson High Tuesday at DHS gymnasium in a West Region game.
Each team shot about 25 percent in the first 18 minutes, but the Saints responded by shooting 15 of 30 in the second half to take control of the game.
“We looked like a completely selfish team on the offensive end,” Dickinson head coach Alysia Barman said. “We’ve been preaching all year about getting ball reversals and seeing our girls inside, and we just refused to do it.”
The Midgets (2-16, 1-14 West Region) made just nine field goals in the game - all two-pointers - so most of their scoring came at the free throw line where they were 25 of 36.
While Dickinson struggled to find an offensive rhythm, the Saints had no such trouble after halftime.
St. Mary’s sophomore Sydney Smith scored a game-high 20 points and added five rebounds and six assists. Five other Saints finished with at least seven points, and the team built a second-half lead of 32 at one point.
But St. Mary’s (7-12, 6-10) head coach Shannon Copas said he was more impressed with his team’s defense.
“What we wanted to do was match up and take (Raegan) Linster out of the game, along with (Jayde) Lawlar, and limit their touches,” he said. “We switched it up with some zone, then back to man-to-man, trying to catch them off guard. We wanted to keep them off balance and deny those passing lanes.”
Linster led the Midgets with 13 points, but Lawlar was limited to six points, all coming from the foul line. Mariah Mortensen also added eight points for Dickinson.
The Saints led by as many as 11 in the first half and went into the break ahead 27-19, led by Smith, Tonya Dvorak, Lindsey Schweitzer and Taylor Gerving all scoring five points.
“In the first half, there was not one possession where we had all five people on the same page,” Barman said. “We’d come down and play whatever kind of basketball we wanted.”
Dickinson sophomore Alexus Meduna and junior Megan Erickson led the Midgets in the first half with four points each.
The rebounding battle was even in the first half - 25 each way - but 10 of the Saints’ boards were on the offensive end, allowing multiple possessions and second-chance points. St. Mary’s would finish with a 52-42 advantage on the glass, 17 of those being on the offensive end. Saints senior Cara Hilzendeger brought down 14 total rebounds and added eight points.
“I spoke with Cara after the game, and I told her getting on those boards was a huge uplift for our team,” Copas said.
Barman harped on the notion that her team must continue to work together if it hopes to become more competitive.
“We’ve been trying to tell the girls all year that we can be a pretty good team if we work together as a team,” she said.
SM: Cara Hilzendeger 8, Sydney Smith 20, Tonya Dvorak 8, Alyssa Beck 3, Lindsey Schweitzer 9, Marriann Senftner 3, Taylor Gerving 9, Elizabeth Preszler 7, Kaitlyn Wanner 5.
D: Alexus Meduna 4, Megan Erickson 4, Raegan Linster 13, Taylor Privratsky 2, Jayde Lawlar 6, Kelsey Privratsky 2, Gabby Jung 3, Emilie Sickler 1, Mariah Mortensen 8.
Halftime: SM 27, D 19. 3-pointers: SM 6 (Smith 3, Gerving 1, Dvorak 2), D 0. Free throws: SM 18-37, D 25-36. Total fouls: SM 24, D 27. Rebounds: SM 52 (Hilzendeger 14), D 42 (Sickler 6). Assists: SM 14 (Smith 6), D 8 (Sickler 1). Steals: SM 10 (Beck 3), D 7 (Linster 1). Blocks: SM 1 (Dvorak 1), D 3 (Mortensen 2). Turnovers: SM 17, D 15.
