Mike Kraft/MDN Hatton-Northwood’s Elizabeth Pinke goes up for a shot in between Bishop Ryan’s Bentley Schneider (left) and Cecilia Johannsen (right) during the first quarter of the Shootout on the Prairie at the Minot Municipal Auditorium on Friday, Dec. 5.

Hatton-Northwood’s team nickname is the Thunder, but the way the girls basketball squad plays, it may want to consider changing that to “Lightning.”

The Thunder used its speed and quickness on both sides of the court, getting out in transition and scoring easy buckets on offense, while also applying heavy full-court pressure and creating turnovers on defense. That formula resulted in a 59-15 victory for Hatton-Northwood over Bishop Ryan on the opening day of the Shootout on the Prairie at the Minot Municipal Auditorium on Friday, Dec. 5.

Hatton-Northwood (1-0) never trailed and outscored the Lions in all four quarters. The Thunder’s defense didn’t allow Bishop Ryan to score more than five points in a single quarter and limited them to just a free throw in the final frame.

“With our personnel, that’s what we felt would give us our best advantage this year is our speed and the pressure,” Hatton-Northwood coach Tony Evenstad said. “We watched film on them and felt like that played into our hand that they struggled to handle that and that’s why we went to it right away.”

Elizabeth Pinke and Natalie Naastad led all scorers with 15 points each, doing most of their damage right at the rim. Isabel Padilla also finished in double-figures, adding 13 points. The Thunder used their size advantage to dominate the paint, with Pinke standing 6-foot and Padilla 5-foot-11. Cecilia Johannsen is the tallest player for Bishop Ryan at 5-foot-10.

“We definitely were looking to attack the middle, take advantage of anything they gave us and play unselfish basketball, and I think the girls did that,” Pinke said.

The Lions (0-2) want to be an uptempo team and take advantage of the speed that is on their roster, but they were slowed to a crawl by the Thunder’s full-court press. Hatton-Northwood deployed the pressure from the opening tip, which led to a plethora of turnovers and transition baskets, allowing the Thunder to break the game open quickly.

Bishop Ryan’s Shilow Christianson drilled the first shot attempt for her team – a 3-pointer – to match 3s with Hatton-Northwood’s Abby Padilla, but that was the only long-distance shot the Lions would connect on and the offense went quiet as well. Bishop Ryan went the next four minutes without a point.

In the meantime, the Thunder scored nine unanswered points to build a 12-3 lead. Pinke had four of those points during that stretch. The Thunder finished off the first quarter netting 15 of the final 17 points for an 18-5 advantage.

“We have to come out with a lot more effort,” Bishop Ryan coach Cole Edwards said. “We’re undersized and lost a really important player in Tochi Udekwe. We had a short turnaround to play a really good team who’s really well-coached. Games like that you have to play hard. When you’re outworked and outmatched it looks like that. Turn the page. There’s lots to learn. When we rely on speed and get beat in transition over and over, it’s tough to do anything really.”

Udekwe – a senior guard – is currently on crutches with a foot injury, leaving the Lions with many underclassmen responsible for bringing the ball up the floor. Bishop Ryan has six guards on the roster ranging from sophomores to eighth graders.

With more heavy pressure being applied, the second quarter looked a lot like the first. Hatton-Northwood held Bishop Ryan without a field goal in the second quarter through the first 4:25 before Christianson scored her second basket of the afternoon. The Thunder opened the frame with a 13-1 run. Naastad and Isabel Padilla knocked down back-to-back 3s to cap the run, giving the Thunder a 31-8 lead. They led by 27 points at the half.

Evenstad called off the full-court pressure in the second half, but his team’s defense and size continued to give the Lions headaches. Christianson had her team’s final three field goals of the game and the only one in the second half, which came early in the third quarter. Following Christianson’s final basket, Bishop Ryan’s offense consisted of two free throws from Eve Braun and one from Bryleigh Thorson. The Lions had just five made field goals for the game. The Thunder finished with 26.

At times, even Evenstad couldn’t slow his team down despite pleading with them on the sideline.

“Even in this game we were trying to slow them down and get them back, but they just want to keep going,” Evenstad said. “As a coach, you’d rather have to try and slow them down then speed them up. It’s a fun team to get to coach.”

Pinke, Naastad and Anika Pinke combined for 14 of Hatton-Northwood’s 22 points in the second half. Elizabeth Pinke didn’t play the fourth quarter.

“We are able to score inside with all five of our starters or outside with all five of them as well, ” Evenstad said. “We have one to two off the bench that we’re pretty comfortable with scoring, but we rely a lot on our first five quite a bit for our scoring.”

Christianson led the Lions with nine points. The eighth-grade guard was responsible for four of the team’s five field goals. Johannsen had the other.

“She’s been great,” Edwards said. “We moved her up to varsity last year after a few weeks in. She handles the ball well, scores it well. Give her a little bit of help to relieve that pressure and we just have to help her out offensively and we’ll be all right.”

Despite the difficult start to the season, which opened with a 46-34 loss at Nedrose earlier in the week, the Lions are trying to keep their head up, as they know there are still plenty more games to be played this season.

“Next-point mentality and keeping each other up, hyping each other up from the bench helps a lot,” Christianson said.

The Lions close out the final day of the Shootout on the Prairie against Stanley on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 11:30 a.m. at the Minot Municipal Auditorium. The Thunder will take on Velva at approximately 1 p.m.