Bruins advance to state tourney

Fargo South advanced to next week's state tournament with a hard fought 53-49 decision over the Jamestown Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon, winning both of its elimination games to take the #3 seed into Thursday's play. South had to make a furious third quarter rally and held on down the stretch for the win. The game plan for the Bruins early on was to try and take away the inside game of the Jays - the Bruins backed off Blue Jay post Jamie Goehner when she was on the perimeter, and doubled her when she was on the block, and that strategy worked well in the opening quarter as the Bruins jumped out to a 6-1 lead. Jamestown's lone basket of the first quarter came on a Melissa Falk three pointer to cut the gap to 6-4 before the Bruins made another basket for an 8-4 first quarter lead. Jamestown made the adjustments in the second quarter though, playing four perimeter players making it a tough matchup for the Bruins defense. That led to 4 three pointers in the quarter for the Jays which offset 9 inside points by the Bruins post tandem of Jessica Trautwein and Mel Hageman. Still, the Bruins led 22-20 late in the quarter before the Jays ran off 7 staight to end the half. A three pointer by Tara Brown gave the Jays the lead 23-22, then a Bruin turnover led to a transition basket by Tiffany Younquist and the Jays scored again on an offensive rebound put back basket by Tahnee McDonald right before the halftime buzzer to give the Jays a 27-22 lead at half. Things appeared to be slipping away for South to open the third quarter as Jessica Gross nailed another three pointer and Brown connected again to give the Jays their biggest lead at 32-23 midway through the period. That was where the game turned around for the Bruins though. South played the final 12 minutes of the game as though their season depended on it, which it did. The Bruins began to pound the ball inside to their 2 all EDC post players on every possession. The duo responded with 10 points in the final 3 minutes of the quarter, scoring nearly every time inside. The Bruins also forced turnovers with an aggressive full court press and half court defensive pressure. A three pointer by Christa Salzwedel gave the Bruins the lead for the first time since the first half at 38-36 which was the score at the end of the third quarter. The Bruins continued to make plays throughout a very exciting fourth quarter. Salzwedel hit a big outside shot and Trautwein made a couple more hoops inside. Amy Hannaher follwed up a missed shot with an offensive rebound and put back on which she was fouled and completed the three point play. South was also sparked by a nifty pass from Kari Flaagan to Hageman inside which gave the Bruins one more shot of energy that they needed to hang on. The Jays didn't quit though as Falk made her third and fourth three pointers of the game in the late going. With the Bruins leading 50-49, the Jays had the ball, but great defensive pressure led to a 5 second count on the dribbling Jessica Gross. The Jays ended up fouling Salzwedel, who went to the line and calmly sank 2 freethrows to give the Bruins a 52-49 lead with under a minute to play. Jamestown then got off a good shot that bounced out and the Bruins rebounded, but a Bruin turnover gave the ball back to the Jays who called timeout with less than 15 seconds to go. The Jays last ditch effort had a three point shot that bounced agonizingly on the rim before falling off into the hands of Flaagan who was immediately fouled with 2 seconds left. Flaagan made one of two freethrows to ice the game for South. Mel Hageman led all scorers with 16 points and she was closely followed by Jessica Trautwein with 15 points and a game high 11 rebounds, her third "double-double" of the tourney. The Bruins open up with Dickinson High on Thursday in the 1:45 game. South is 16-6 and the Midgets are

Boxscore:
Fargo South: Kruckenberg 0 1-2 1, Hageman 5 6-6 16, Salzwedel 2 4-4 9, Hannaher 2 1-1 5, Trautwein 7 1-3 15, Dobmeier 0 3-4 3, Flaagan 1 2-4 4; Totals 17 18-24 53, Three point goals: Salzwedel

Jamestown: Youngquist 1 0-0 2, Rigsby 1 0-0 3, Goehner 4 1-2 9, J. Gross 2 1-2 6, Falk 4 0-0 12, Brown 3 0-0 8, McDonald 3 3-5 9; Totals: 18 5-9 49, Three point goals: Falk 4, Brown 2, Gross, Rigsby

Fouled out: none; Total Fouls: South 12, Jamestown 19; Rebounds: South 31(Trautwein 11), Jamestown 17(Rigsby 4), Turnovers South 25, Jamestown 12, Steals: South 5, Jamestown 13, Assists: South 14(Kraft 3), Jamestown 14(3 with 3)

click here to go back to our other game results