MINOT - The Minot Ryan’s dynamic duo of Gabbie Bohl and Hannah Stewart was on full display Friday night.
The Lions’ senior posts, who are both bound for the NCAA, combined for 39 of the team’s 65 points.
However, it was Bohl and Stewart’s defensive pressure which helped top seed and No. 1-ranked Minot Ryan take a 65-27 semifinal win over No.10-ranked Dickinson Trinity at the Minot State Dome.
“We like to come out of the gate full force if we can,” said Stewart, who scored 11 of her game-high 22 points in the first quarter. “We take a lot of pride in our defense. My mom (Minot Ryan head coach Julie Stewart) really reinforces it every practice.”
Bohl is 6-foot-2 and committed to the University of Mary, while Stewart - who stands 6-3 - is headed to play in the Big Ten basketball with the University of Iowa. Stewart added 13 rebounds and four blocks in the semifinal win.
Trinity junior post Alanna Sickler said when Bohl and Stewart are on the floor at the same time it’s like there more than five defenders.
“Their arms are ridiculously long,” said Sickler, who finished with seven points and seven rebounds. “We just couldn’t get anything above them inside the paint, so we needed to knock down some outside, but we couldn’t make it happen tonight.”
The Lions (24-1) didn’t wait long to put Trinity (20-5) in a deficit it could never recover.
Minot Ryan grabbed a double-digit lead - 13-2 - after Stewart knocked down a jumper with 2 minutes, 59 seconds left in the first quarter.
“It really hurt that we couldn’t knock the lid off the basket early,” Trinity head coach Carter Fong said. “For a long time, that scoreboard was stuck on zero and then on two. We couldn’t get anything rolling. We had a plan coming in, but that plan relied on us being able to stay within striking distance and that fell apart pretty quickly.”
Minot Ryan continued to add to its lead and eventually took a 32-10 lead at halftime. The Lions defense limited Trinity to 4 for 22 (18 percent) from the field. Minot Ryan didn’t have any trouble finding the bottom of the net with a 52 shooting percentage.
In the second half, the Lions continued to build its lead and finished the third quarter with a 50-16 advantage. Minot Ryan finished the game 25 of 46 (54 percent), while Trinity shot 22 percent.
“The past two days we’ve played really well as a team,” Stewart said. “(On Thursday) Gabbie and I didn’t get as much minutes or as much points as we usually do, but that’s absolutely fine because we have team members that can step up all over the court. (On Friday) we just played as a team.”
Trinity’s leading scorer was Kennedy Keator with 11 points. She also had five rebounds.
Minot Ryan’s Maddie Wald posted 12 points, five assists and five rebounds. Sheyenne Schmidt added eight points.
While the Lions advance to their third straight Class B state championship, the Titans have already made school history playing LaMoure-Litchville-Marion in the third-place game at 5 p.m. today. Trinity’s highest finish at the state tournament in school history is fifth.
“We are going to come out like we have something to prove,” Fong said about the third-place game.
Minot Ryan plays No. 2 seed and No. 2-ranked Kindred in the championship at 7 p.m. today.
Julie Stewart is pleased with the team’s opportunity to play for another Class B state title.
“I’m so proud of them with what they have accomplished,” she said. “The fact that we get another opportunity in a state championship game is incredible. We want to come out and hopefully play good basketball. That’s all you can do. I don’t want added pressure because of what game it is. They just have to keep doing what they have been doing.”
Trinity 2 10 16 27
Minot Ryan 20 32 40 65
T: Kennedy Keator 11, Alanna Sickler 7, Brianna Soehren 4, Lauren Stafford 3, Madison Jahner 2.
MR: Hannah Stewart 22, Gabbie Bohl 17, Maddie Wald 12, Sheyenne Schmidt 8, Shayla Elm 2, Bridget MacLeod 2, Kelly Kasper 2.
3-pointers: T 2 (Keator 2), MR 4 (Schmidt 2, Stewart 1, Wald 1). Free throws: T 5-9, MR 11-14. Total fouls: T 9, MR 8. Rebounds: T 28 (Sickler 7), MR 35 (Stewart 13). Assists: T 5 (five tied with one), MR 16 (Wald 5). Blocks: T 0, MR 5 (Stewart 4). Turnovers: T 20, MR 17. Records: T 20-5, MR 24-1.
