January 12, 2011

Watford girls extend season record to perfect 7-0

By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor

With wins over New Town and Beulah, the Watford City girls basketball team upped its season record to 7-0.
This week, the Wolves will host North Shore/Plaza on Friday, and then travel to Mandaree on Tuesday.
Watford City 55, New Town 43
In a very big District 15 win for Watford City, the Wolves knocked off the New Town Eagles, 55-43, on Jan. 4, which puts the Wolves on top of the District 15 standings.
“We played excellent defense,” stated Berton Bates, Wolves’ head coach, on the win. “But we didn’t rebound as well as we would have liked to.”
After playing a close opening quarter, the Wolves used a strong second quarter that saw Watford City outscoring the Eagles, 14-3, to pull away from New Town.
Watford City led New Town, 16-14, at the end of the first quarter and 30-17 at halftime.
That 13-point margin proved to be too much for New Town to recover from as both teams netted 10 points in the third quarter, and Watford City cruised to a comfortable win.
Alexis Sanford paced the Wolves in scoring with 16 points, including four three-pointers.
Also scoring in double figures for Watford City was Jayme Johnson and McKayla Haugeberg with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
“We continue to get balanced scoring and contributions from all 10 girls,” stated Bates. “We attacked the basket well and shot pretty good free throws. This was a big district win on the road for us.”
Rounding out the scoring for Watford City was Dani Bates with eight points, Marti Quale with five points, while Sadie Kieson and Brianna Allex ended the game with two points each.
Bates and Johnson led the Wolves in rebounding with eight and seven boards, respectively, while Quale had four assists. Haugeberg led the Wolves with eight steals.
For the game, the Wolves connected on 12 of 34 from the field, five of 18 three-pointers and were good on 16 of 27 at the free-throw line.
Watford City    16    30    40    55
New Town        14    17    27    43
 Watford City 66, Beulah 62

After holding what would have seemed a comfortable 27-point lead going into the final eight minutes of play, Watford City had to hold off a huge comeback attempt by Beulah in the fourth quarter to pick up their seventh-straight win of the season.
“We had a big lead, and then let up defensively,” stated Berton Bates, Wolves’ head coach. “We handled the ball well enough, and made enough free throws at the end to hold off a determined Beulah team.”
The Wolves led the Miners, 18-11, at the end of the first quarter and 38-25 at halftime before outscoring the Miners, 20-10, in the third quarter. But Beulah battled back in the final eight minutes outgunning the Wolves, 27-8, as they attempted to pull off a come-from-behind win.
The Wolves had five players in double-figure scoring in the contest with Marti Quale pacing the Wolves with 17 points, including one three-pointer. Also in double-digit scoring was Alexis Sanford who knocked down four treys to end the game with 12 points, while Dani Bates, Jayme Johnson and McKayla Haugeberg netted 10 points each.
Rounding out the scoring for Watford City was Brianna Allex with four points, Shanyce Fredericks with two points and Sadie Kieson with one point.
For the game, the Wolves hit 15 of 42 from the field, seven of 15 three-pointers and were good on 15 of 32 at the charity stripe.
Johnson and Bates led the Wolves in rebounding with 10 and eight boards, respectively, while Allex and Sanford had five and four assists, respectively.
Watford City    18    38    58    66
Beulah              11    25    35    62

WATFORD CITY WEATHER