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Lace ‘em up

Previewing the Region 6 girls basketball season

Photos by Alex Eisen/MDN TOP: Rugby's Brooke Blessum (right) and Maria Blessum (23) watch now-graduated Velva guard Greta Florence look for a pass in a District 11 girls basketball game played last season at Velva High School.

With a new season brings a clean slate for teams in the Class B Region 6 girls basketball scene.

Here is a breakdown of the field as teams prepare to defend titles, carve out spots in the standings and develop chemistry in the wake of roster shakeups.

District 11

Leading the pack in District 11 are the Rugby Panthers. The Panthers emerged victorious in last year’s Region 6 Tournament with a 54-39 win over Velva to advance to the Class B state tournament, where they ultimately fell to Killdeer in the opening round, 51-45, and wound up claiming seventh place.

Rugby will look to find its way back to state despite the graduation of Madison Uhlenkamp, who led the team in scoring last season and is now playing at Dakota College of Bottineau.

Even with Uhlenkamp’s departure, the Panthers aren’t short on scoring or leadership. Rugby boasts a powerful one-two punch with its senior backcourt duo of Karsyn Hager and Annie Stier – two All-District players from last season.

Challenging the Panthers in District 11 are the Velva Aggies. The Aggies have also experienced their fair share of roster changes, as they will be without All-District honorees Greta Florence and Tristin Lunde.

But with the departure of Florence and Lunde comes the arrival of junior Emma Passa. The 5-foot-10 versatile guard served as Bishop Ryan’s star player last season before moving schools this summer.

Passa will now team up with the likes of seniors Rachel Mack and Hope Brewer in the hope of finally dethrone the Panthers, who have bested Velva in the District 11 championship the past four years in a row.

“Everyone is just getting used to playing with each other right now,” Velva head coach Chris Braaten said. “(Passa) really brings some aggressiveness and drive that fits in well here, so the rest of the girls will be looking to meet that same level of energy.”

Among the teams on the rise in the District 11 hierarchy are the Nedrose Cardinals. The Cardinals made major strides in their third season in the district last year by not finishing in last like the previous two seasons and even earning a No. 5 seed in the District 11 Tournament.

Nedrose is led by junior guard Hailey Roberts, an explosive scorer who put the district on notice last season with a 26-point performance against Glenburn on Feb. 1. With Mikalyn Berglof having graduated, the Cardinals will lean on Roberts to continue to progress the flourishing program.

Not to be forgotten are the Bottineau Stars. Bottineau had arguably the biggest upset of last season, defeating the top-seeded Bishop Ryan Lions by a score of 32-28 in the opening round of the Region 6 Tournament.

Running the show for Bottineau is Jaclyn Hanson. The 5-foot-11 center creates mismatches on a nightly basis with her size and scoring ability around the rim.

After last year’s unexpected run, the Stars shouldn’t be counted out this time around either.

District 12

Although Bishop Ryan is the reigning District 12 champion, the Lions enter the year with a bit of a chip on their shoulder after their Region 6 Tournament loss to Bottineau.

Bouncing back this season won’t be an easy task, though, as Ryan experienced one of the bigger roster shakeups in the region this summer. After losing Passa and seeing McKinlee Harmon graduate, the Lions then saw their head coach, April Nakatani, step down in August.

Nakatani earned the District 12 Coach of the Year award in her only season as Ryan’s head coach before leaving due to increasing demands from a new job. The Lions brought in Roger Coleman, Ryan’s athletic director and head football coach, as the new girls basketball head coach.

The key to Ryan repeating last season’s success will be whether or not it maintains its gritty defense that gave so many teams problems. The Lions held their opponents to under 40 points in 10 of their 13 wins last season.

“Our defense is what we’re going to hang our hat on,” Coleman said. “Our philosophy will be to pressure the ball the length of the court for the majority of the game and let that turn into our offense. That’s our mindset.”

One team standing in the way of the Lions and their hopes of repeating as District 12 champs is Des Lacs-Burlington. The Lakers entered the District 12 Tournament as the top seed before suffering a 40-37 loss to Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood in the semifinals.

Finding their way back to the top will be a challenge as the team is now without Caitlyn Vogel. The guard earned District 12 Senior Athlete of the Year honors last season and led the Lakers in scoring.

With Vogel no longer in the picture, the keys to the DLB offense have been passed over to Kyley Lauf. Lauf, who had a dominant volleyball campaign this fall, is a problem for defenses in the paint with her size and post moves.

The Lakers will lean on their senior as they continue their search for the program’s first state tournament appearance since 1990.

DLB isn’t the only threat to the Lions, though, as the Lewis & Clark-Berthold Bombers seem primed to make a splash. The Bombers are one of the more experienced teams in the district, returning a Big Three of senior Abby Simons, senior Corina Pabian and junior Toni Hamilton.

Among the other teams looking to carve out a place in the District 12 landscape are the Our Redeemer’s Knights. After reaching the state tournament in 2017, the Knights came up one win short of reaching the Region 6 Tournament last season.

Our Redeemer’s is led by senior guard Tessa Olson and junior guard Tea Boeckel, who are the only two upperclassmen on the team after the graduation of Karolynn Winger and Karlee Zablotney.

Justin Martinez covers Minot High School sports and Class B high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @JTheSportsDude.

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