After its win over Heart River on Monday, the Dickinson Trinity girls basketball team had a tougher challenge against Beulah.
The Titans not only had to battle Beulah physically, but also themselves mentally.
The Titans beat the Miners 46-38 in a Region 7 game Thursday night at Knights of Columbus Activities Center.
“We’ve been stressing how important it is to come out and start, and our first quarter effort was real poor,” Trinity head coach Alysia Barman said. “Just simple things, mental things. I thought we made a lot of mistakes throughout the game. Shoot 22 percent from the field and we missed probably 30 layups. We have to be better than that. We can’t think we’re good enough to step on the floor and win. Tonight, we came out and mentally were real weak.”
The game got away from Trinity quickly in the first quarter. Beulah (7-9, 3-4 Region 7) started off with four unanswered points and built an 11-3 lead with a layup by senior forward Lakin Kessler.
The Titans (13-4, 7-1 Region 7) were forced to take a timeout at with 4 minutes, 15 seconds left in the quarter to try to get themselves situated.
The 30-second break helped and Trinity got back into the game.
The Titans cut Beulah’s lead to 17-14 by the end of the first quarter and captured their first lead of the game when sophomore forward Alanna Sickler made a layup in traffic a little over 2 minutes into the second quarter.
“We started out a little slow, which is something we’ve been working on and trying to improve on throughout the season,” said senior guard Rachel Jahner, who finished with eight points. “We had a slow start and had to dig ourselves out our hole we got in.”
The game was tied 27-27 at halftime, but just 2:09 into the third, Jahner drained a 3 to make the score 32-28.
Trinity maintained its lead the rest of the way.
The Titans were led by Sickler and sophomore guard Kennedy Keator. Each scored 11 points. Trinity struggled at the free-throw line, making just 9 for 23.
Beulah senior Courtney Mitchell had a game-high 15 points and was followed by junior Jaime Murschel with 13.
Despite the loss and unraveling down the stretch, Beulah head coach Mary Hoherz said she was pleased with her team’s initial aggression and overall performance.
“The way we started the game, we were so aggressive sand all of a sudden we reverted back,” Hoherz said. “Trinity is an excellent, excellent team and we came out with total confidence, we played well and we’re struggling on our third quarters but as a team that’s building. We’re making huge strides and I’m really proud of how they played.
Trinity’s biggest adjustment was on the defensive end, where it physically flustered Beulah and caused turnovers.
Senior guard Katelyn Grinsteinner, who scored just four points but had a strong defensive effort, which was the spark needed to get the Titans going.
“Katelyn did a great job defending her point guard,” Barman said. “She had her frustrated and that’s what really got us back into the game in the second quarter, was her defensive effort.”
Trinity travels to play Richardton-Taylor at 7 p.m. Monday. With four games left in the regular season, it’s crunch time and the Titans know what they need to do in order to continue to grow and be successful.
“It’s time to focus on the big picture now so we need to put all the little things together,” Grinsteinner said. “We need to work on the small things so the big things can come together.”
Beulah 17 27 30 38
Trinity 14 27 38 46
B: Courtney Mitchell 15, Jaime Murschel 13, Lakin Kessler 5, Nicole Schramm 3, Delaney Johansen 2.
DT: Kennedy Keator 11, Alanna Sickler 11, Rachel Jahner 8, Jillian Stockert 5, Katelyn Grinsteinner 4, Brianna Soehren 4, Madi Jahner 3.
3-pointers: B 5 (Mitchell 3, Kessler 1, Schramm 1), DT 3 (Jahner 2, Keator 1). Free throws: B 3-9, DT 9-23. Total fouls: B 17, DT 14. Records: DT 13-4, 7-1 Region 7; B 7-8, 3-3 Region 7
