Mike Kraft/MDN Minot North’s Cambree Phillips attempts to pass the ball off to Elli Laskowski while being defended by Mandan’s Sierra Gustavsson (5) and Hadley Harris during the first half of a WDA game on Friday, Jan. 2.

The Minot North girls basketball team could not have envisioned a more turbulent start to the 2026 portion of its schedule.

The Sentinels returned to conference play with an 87-52 loss to fifth-ranked Mandan on Friday, Jan. 2, but that arguably wasn’t even the worst aspect of the night.

That came with 8:41 remaining in the first half when sophomore forward and leading scorer Elli Laskowski left the game after suffering an elbow injury. Laskowski suffered the injury after drawing a foul on Mandan’s Alli Reiner while driving to the basket. The foul itself didn’t cause the injury, but her momentum carried her into the wall, where she believed she hyperextended the elbow, forcing her out of the game.

Laskowski said she felt a shooting pain go through her elbow after contacting the wall. She was unable to shoot the proceeding free throws as a result. Jazlynn Sweet took her spot at the free-throw line. Laskowski felt like the team was holding its own against the fifth-ranked Braves at the time.

“I thought we were moving the ball well and getting through the press and keeping at pace with them,” Laskowski said.

Laskowski left the game with the Braves in front 25-18. She had the bulk of her team’s points at that juncture with 11. She entered the game averaging 31.6 points per game, hitting the 30-point mark in four of her first five games.

“She’s a big part of what we like to do and she’s always given us her best effort picking up teammates, doing those little things for us and creating opportunities for other kids,” Minot North coach Justin Lauf said. “When you lose something like that, which is a big piece of what you’ve done and what you’re doing, it changes a lot.”

The Braves (6-0 overall, 3-0 WDA) closed out the final 8:41 of the first half outscoring the Sentinels (3-3, 1-2) by nine to build a 43-27 lead at the intermission. With the 5-foot-10 forward on the bench, Minot North had a significant height disadvantage in the paint, having to contend with AnnaClaire Bugbee (6-2) and Reiner (6-1).

Bugbee poured in a game-high 29 points and Reiner netted 14 of her 17 points in the second half. Bugbee scored 12 of Mandan’s 18 first-half points following Laskowski’s exit.

“We feel good about our bigs inside,” Mandan coach Tanner Purintun said. “We want to play through our bigs. We have very capable guards that can hit shots and make plays, but we try to establish our post game and inside presence every game, so they’ve been doing that for us all season. They’ve been having solid games for us, so we expect that from them and they proved it tonight that they are capable of doing it.”

Bugbee and Reiner did their damage on the inside, but Mimi McAllister provided the offense from the perimeter. She knocked down a game-high five 3-pointers for a 23-point night.

“We just played team ball,” Bugbee said. “We came out of the winter break knowing we wanted to be a different team and share the ball all the way around and I think that’s what we did.”

Eight players scored points for the Braves.

Laskowski said she hoped to return to the game, but realized it wasn’t to be when her elbow grew stiffer over time despite constant icing to the area. She didn’t take part in warmups coming out of halftime and remained on the bench throughout the second half.

The Braves took full advantage, opening the half on a 21-4 run to build a 64-34 lead with 11:20 remaining. Even with Laskowski out of the lineup, Mandan kept the status quo, applying heavy pressure in the backcourt with their press and being aggressive on the glass and grabbing offensive rebounds for extra possessions.

“She’s a real nice player, but a lot of what we do is focusing on us and our press and our pressure and that was going to be the same regardless,” Purintun said. “We were going to press and we were going to try and pressure Minot North and try to speed them up a little bit. Obviously she’s a talented player, so it’s more difficult when she’s in the game, but our gameplan stayed the same.”

Despite the result, the Sentinels had players step up to fill new roles in Laskowski’s absence. Eighth grader Cambree Phillips – second on the team in scoring at 17.2 points per game – led the Sentinels with 16 points.

“I’m going to have to do a lot more and be one of the better ones and try and make other people score and score myself, too, ” Phillips said. “I was driving to the basket and trying to use as many moves as I can to get open looks.”

Phillips scored 13 of her points post-injury.

“Cam’s a warrior, “Lauf said. “For her being just an eighth grader, she doesn’t play like an eighth grader. I was proud of that kid going hard and giving effort. We have to keep building, keep using those pieces to hopefully play our best basketball in February and March.”

Kinzy Welstad added 13 points – all in the second half – and Brynn Francis chipped in nine.

Lauf and the rest of the Sentinels are optimistic that the injury isn’t too serious and that they will have Laskowski back in the lineup sooner rather than later, but will know more about the extent of the injury in the coming days. They are just hoping this isn’t an omen of what 2026 will continue to bring.

“It’s hard for it to be your night when you lose a kid that averages 30 a game, so it’s really hard to replace that, but there is some resiliency to be said for kids that had to step into roles they don’t normally play,” Lauf said.

Minot North plays at Bismarck Century on Tuesday, Jan. 6, at 6 p.m.