Fargo South advances to semi-finals

Fargo South held off a scrappy Bismarck Century team, and posted a hard fought 66-62 win in the opening round of the State Class A Tournament on Thursday night in Bismarck. In almost a repeat performance of their last game in the EDC championship, both teams struggled to score early on, and then the Bruins found themselves trailing for much of the early part of the game, then put together a nice run to lead at halftime. In Thursday's game, which featured a total of 19 lead changes, the teams traded baskets for the first 6 minutes, and the Bruins led 8-7 on a Siri Burck steal and layup. The Patriots though then started to stretch out the lead, scoring the next 7 points to lead 14-8. Alley Fisher ended that run with a three pointer. Century responded again with a run, and a Tasha Michelson three with just under 8 minutes left in the half gave Century their biggest lead at 21-13. Thats when the Bruins began to get back in the game. Siri Burck nailed a three pointer, and a three from Meghan Roehrich with just under 4 minutes left allowed South to regain the lead at 25-24. Kristen Anstadt and Alley Fisher continued the three point barrage, hitting back to back threes to give South a 34-29 lead, which looked to be the halftime score, but an offensive putback basket at the halftime buzzer by Carli Peterson cut the South lead to 34-31 at half. In the second half, the teams again traded hoops. Amy Stroup led the charge for the Bruins, scoring the team's first 3 baskets, but the Patriots still led 41-40. For the next 7 minutes of the game though, the Bruins were able to seize control. Siri Burck hit another three pointer, Amy Stroup scored inside, Katie Lee hit a long two pointer right before the shot clock buzzer, and Caitlyn Haring had a steal and pass ahead to Siri Burck for a layup that gave South their biggest lead at 58-45 with 7 minutes left in the game. The Pats were not going to give up though, and got hot the last part of the game. A Carli Peterson three and Madi Buck hoop cut the Bruins lead to 61-60 with under a minute to play. Catilyn Haring then made two clutch freethrows to push the lead back out to 63-60, then a huge steal and layup by Meghan Roehrich gave South a 65-60 lead with 30 seconds left. The Patriots scored again to make it 65-62 and put Caitlyn Haring back on the line with 9 seconds left. The all-conference guard iced the game by hitting the first freethrow, and the Patriots couldn't score again. The Bruins were led by freshman Mehgan Roehrich and senior Amy Stroup with 13 points each, while junior Catilyn Haring had her usual sparkling floor game, scoring 7 points, grabbing 9 rebounds, dishing out 7 assists, and collecting 5 steals. South is now 20-3 on the season, has tied a school record with 15 straight wins, and will play top ranked Bismarck on Friday night.

See the complete box score here

Boxscore:
Fargo South: Roehrich 2 8-13 13, Burck 5 0-0 12, Lee 1 0-0 2, Weatherspoon 1 0-0 2, Stroup 5 3-3 13, Anstadt 1 5-7 8, Haring 2 3-5 7, Fisher 3 0-0 9; Totals 20 19-27 66, Three point goals: Fisher 3, Burck 2, Roehrich, Anstadt

Century: Peterson 10 3-6 24, Buck 4 7-9 15, Michelson 4 0-0 9, Sorenson 2 0-0 4, Hueselman 1 1-1 3, Vanderpan 0 4-4 4, Gordon 1 0-0 3; Totals: 22 15-20 62, Three point goals: Peterson, Michelson, Gordon

Fouled out: Anstadt; Total Fouls: South 21, BC 20; Rebounds: South 33(Haring 9), BC 39(Peterson 13), Assists: South 16(Haring 7), BC 11; Steals: South 10(Haring 5), BC 7; Turnovers: South 16, BC 24