Ryan Ladika/MDN Taury Hight, 23, goes up for a layup during the first half of the Majettes’ Friday night tilt.

Bolstered by a newly-minted top five ranking in North Dakota Class A girls’ basketball, the Minot High Majettes returned to home court Friday night fresh off a two-game road sweep and put on a show for their home crowd.

Minot (9-1 overall, 8-1 WDA) was honored with a No. 5 ranking in the state in Wednesday’s North Dakota Associated Press Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (NDAPSSA) poll and looked every bit the part in its 88-66 victory over the visiting Mandan Braves.

“It started with a lot of Leelee (Bell),” Majettes head coach Jason Schwarz said. “She was able to create early, get their defense to start collapsing, and then all of a sudden shooters are open everywhere. So it was just a great team effort tonight.”

On the backs of McKenna Johnson and Jordan Toman, the Braves (5-7, 5-6) ambushed their ranked opponents with a 5-2 run off the opening tipoff.

Avery Lunde and Bell combined for four quick points that were answered by a Morgan Sheldon field goal, giving the Braves a slim 7-6 lead with 14:16 on the clock. Led by their breakout eighth-grade star, the Majettes quickly took control of the affairs.

Bell, averaging over 15 points per game through Minot’s first nine contests this season, drilled her first triple of the evening to ignite a 15-0 run during the ensuing 4:01 of game time. She would score 10 of the Majettes’ 15 during that span, including another three-point shot that forced a Mandan timeout with 11:28 on the clock.

“It doesn’t matter who’s doing the scoring, as long as it’s somebody out there and they kind of get us going. And that really did get us going tonight,” Schwarz said. “(Leelee) brought that intensity and that energy off the bench right away. There’s nothing she can’t do out there on the court, offensively. We’re going to try to take advantage of that as much as we can.”

Hailey Markel broke the scoring drought for the Braves with 10:15 to go in the opening half, but Mandan could not slow Minot’s prolific offense.

A quartet of Maggie Fricke free throws and a Presley Bennett three-pointer extended the Majettes’ advantage to 28-11 midway through the first half, and Minot weathered a 10-5 Braves run down the stretch to bring a 39-25 lead into the locker room.

“I think everything started with our defense tonight. We’ve been looking for this level of intensity, and it just makes your offense flow that much better,” Schwarz added. “We were able to get in a rhythm by taking them out of their rhythm. By wearing them down a little bit, we get going on our fastbreak. It opened up some looks for us.”

The two clubs traded shots through the opening three minutes of the second half, and Minot would once again find a groove on its offensive end. Lunde made her first try from beyond the arc after a pair of Fricke free throws to kickstart a 13-2 run to put her team ahead 58-32, and a 14-3 Majettes stretch that began under the eight-minute mark of the half put the game away.

Bell notched a game-high 23 points in the winning effort, followed by 20 from Fricke, 13 from Lunde and 12 from Taury Hight on an evening that saw Minot combine for 11 triples. Hailey Markel paced the Braves with 20 of her own.

Minot now faces a rematch with the Bismarck Demons in the capital city Jan. 25. Second-ranked Bismarck put the only digit in the Majettes’ loss column to date, a 61-55 loss in Minot Jan. 8, and Schwarz noted his team will need more of the same to complete the exorcism next week.

“It gives us some good confidence,” he said of the Friday win. “That’s going to be a battle Tuesday night, down there. We’re going to have to play a lot like we did tonight on the defensive end, and they play extremely hard, we play extremely hard. It’s just going to be one of those bitter battles in the WDA.”