Demons hold off South

The Bismarck Demons, ranked #3 in the preseason poll, jumped out to a big lead early against the inexperienced Fargo South Bruins, then held on for dear life in the second half to claim a 55-52 opening night win on Thursday night in the Mandan gym in the opening round of the East-West Classic. The Demons used aggressive defense to open up a 31-13 second quarter lead, many of those points coming off of steals by All-State guard Natalie Brunner who had 22 first half points. The Demons appeared to have the game well in hand at halftime, leading 39-22. The Bruins though, would not go away. South limited Bismarck to just four third quarter points, helped in large part by doing a great job of defensive rebounding in the quarter and on offense converting many of the free throws that they had been missing in the first half. The Bruins climbed to within 7 points, 43-36, at the end of the third quarter and continued to climb closer. A three pointer by freshman Christa Salzwedel pulled the Bruins to within 2 points at 48-46 with just over 3 minutes left. The Bruins held on defense and a jumper in the lane by Mandy Rice tied the game at 48. Brunner gave the lead back to the Demons with a driving layup with 2:51 to go. Unfortunately for South, the Demons would not relinquish that lead again. The Bruins were able to pull within one point on two different occasions but could not tie the game up again. South trailed by a 55-52 score and had the ball at the end of the game, but great defensive pressure by the Demons forced an long three point attempt by Rice that bounced off the rim and the Bruins didn't get another shot.

Boxscore:
Fargo South: Rice 3 0-0 7, Luecke 5 3-6 13, Trautwein 2 5-8 9, Calkins 3 8-11 14, Petrik 1 1-4 3, Bostow 0 2-5 2, Kruckenberg 1 0-0 2, Salzwedel 1 0-0 3;

Bismarck: Brunner 13 4-5 30, Dewall 2 0-2 5, Ness 1 2-8 4, Knoll 4 1-2 9, Espeland 2 1-4 7;

Three pointers: South: Salzwedel, Rice; Bismarck: Espeland 2, Dewall; Fouls: South 19, Bismarck 27; Fouled out: Trautwein, Weigel; Rebounds: South: 43(Luecke 13, Calkins 12), Bismarck 32(Brunner 8); Turnovers: South 28, Bismarck 15

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