The Dickinson girls’ basketball team’s home game Tuesday night against Watford City was a non-region match that featured two sides tuning their squads coming back from the winter break. The game was played to fill their schedules from Williston not playing a varsity team this season.
It was a scrappy game that became very close in the second half before ending 60-50 with DHS taking home the win. Despite the game not contributing to their conference record, Midgets head coach Devin Douglas told her team to fight as if everything was on the line.
“It's a big win for us coming off break,” Douglas said. “I told the girls, ‘I don't care if it's a non-conference game, it's a basketball game. We are coming here to work hard, have fun and come to win.’ And that is exactly what they did.”
The first half started with Watford City taking a small lead of 13-7, but would quickly find themselves playing from behind that would last for the remainder of the game. Reese Hauck took the lead with a layup to make it 14-13.
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The Midgets scored the majority of their points in the first, going 12-for-15 at the free-throw line and knocking down five 3-pointers. Emily Ash hit three from beyond the arc with the last one coming right before the buzzer. The two teams went into their locker rooms at half with the score at 39-22.
Despite a strong first half, Dickinson would struggle to get points on the board in the second half and would almost lose their lead in late stages. It was a four-point game with just four minutes remaining.
What saved them was the shots taken from the charity stripe, going 9-for-16. They were 68 percent successful at the line overall.
The game ended with Watford City taking a shot from half court that missed the basket, but just barely.
Ash had a tremendous night, leading in points and in steals with 20 and six, was 3-for-3 at the free-throw line and had six rebounds. Hauck led in rebounds with nine, had 14 points, two steals and was 6-for-8 at the line.
Jessica Mogen was the Wolves top scorer with 21 points.
“We kind of had a long break, but we worked really hard in practice and I think tonight it showed,” Douglas said. The girls' hard work really carried over in the game. Emily Ash, Reese Hauck, all of our guards really led us.”
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The next outing for the Midgets will be in Jamestown against the Blue Jays this Saturday.
