Garrick Hodge/MDN Bottineau guard Sydnie Nelson (10) drives to the basket as Bishop Ryan's Eden Kramer (1) defends her during a Region 6 girls basketball game Monday at the Minot Auditorium.

It wasn’t the prettiest win.

But the Bottineau girls basketball team will take its first Region 6 Tournament victory since 2009 any way it can get it.

The No. 4 team from District 11, the Stars upset District 12 champion Bishop Ryan 32-28 Monday in the Region 6 quarterfinals at the Minot Auditorium.

“It wasn’t really that pretty the whole game,” Bottineau coach Michael Vandal said. “I thought it was pretty ugly. It turned into a defensive battle, but that’s how we grinded out our last couple of wins.”

Neither team shot at a high percentage, as Bottineau made 18 percent of its shots and the Lions converted 20 percent. The difference was the free throw line, as the Stars were 14-of-19 and the Lions were 2-of-3 from the charity stripe. In the two teams’ last meeting, Ryan won 58-47 on Jan. 13.

“I told the girls, don’t ever overlook any team,” Lions coach April Nakatani said. “Bottineau was ready to play and they outplayed us. We just weren’t ready.”

Unfortunately for Ryan, standout sophomore forward Emma Passa did not play in Monday’s contest due to injury.

“It’s absolutely a downer she couldn’t play,” Nakatani said. “But at the same time, we had 14 other girls that had to step it up. We all need to lean on each other and step it up, but we just weren’t ready to do that tonight.”

Meanwhile, Bottineau had been preparing for Passa all week and had no idea she wasn’t going to play until tip off.

“Obviously that changed some things, she’s a really good player,” Vandal said. “We worked all week on how to focus on trying to stop her. But I told the girls, don’t let anyone take that away from you, you still won this basketball game.”

The Stars took a 10-8 lead after the first quarter, but both teams struggled offensively in the second. Ryan only scored two points in the second, and Bottineau scored three en route to taking a 13-10 lead at halftime. The Lions outscored the Stars 11-10 in the third, but only scored seven points in the fourth quarter.

Bottineau guard Sydnie Nelson had a game-high 19 points, converting 11 of 11 free throws. The Stars shot 8-of-43 from the floor.

McKinlee Harmon led Ryan with 13 points, as the Lions made 11 of 55 field goals.

Bottineau (11-11) takes on Velva at 7:30 p.m. in tonight’s semifinal matchup.

“I told our team coming into the matchup with Ryan, you’ve got nothing to lose,” Vandal said. “We knew we were the underdogs. We just came out, had fun and wanted to see what happened. They did a great job and never gave up.”

Meanwhile, Ryan ends its season at 13-9.

“We only had four returners this year and 11 brand new girls had never played at the varsity level before,” Nakatani said. “For them to see that level and understand what it takes to be a varsity play and play against great teams, I think they got a wake up call from this. I think they now know what it feels like to have such a tough loss and how it feels to have a season end this way.”

Garrick Hodge covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @Garrick_Hodge