Mike Kraft/MDN Minot High’s Eve Knutson drives to the basket against Mandan’s Lizzy Milne (14) and Allyson Holzer (15) during the first half of a WDA contest at Magic City Campus on Tuesday, Jan. 20.

It’s rare enough for once a season to have the schedules align to pit the top two ranked teams in the state against each with both sporting undefeated records.

For the No. 1 Minot High girls basketball team, it happened twice in five days and, most importantly, they came away victorious in both instances.

In a battle of the last two undefeated Class AA teams in North Dakota, the Majettes played solid defense and overcame a foul-heavy contest to knock off No. 2 Mandan, 85-69, on Tuesday, Jan. 20, at Magic City Campus. The Majettes’ victory follows a victory over then-No. 2 and undefeated Bismarck Century last Friday in Bismarck.

“I know with these girls that when we have big games that I don’t have to worry about getting them focused or motivated,” Minot High coach Jason Schwarz said. “They are ready to go. I felt like coming into this game that we were pretty locked in defensively. We had some things we wanted to get better at, mainly more effort and I think we saw that out there tonight. We continue to grow our effort on defense and make things difficult for the other team.”

The Majettes and Braves were battling both each other and foul trouble all night. The first half featured 29 combined fouls – 17 whistled on Mandan. The Braves jumped out to an early 18-10 lead, hitting a pair of 3s during the run. But the momentum shifted once Mandan was called for its seventh team foul with 8:16 remaining in the first half, putting the Majettes in the bonus. It only took two more minutes for Minot High to be in the double bonus, allowing them free points at the line.

Minot High took full advantage of Mandan’s foul issues. Trailing 18-15, the Majettes scored their next 12 points from the charity stripe to take a 27-20 lead. Eve Knutson was 5-for-5 from the line during that stretch, including three after getting fouled attempting a shot from distance.

The Majettes went 19-for-25 from the line in the first half and 38-for-45 for the game. Minot High outscored the Braves by 19 points at the line. Mandan finished 19 of 26 from the free-throw line.

Mandan’s Mimi McAllister and Lizzy Milne were whistled for three fouls in the first half, as was Minot High’s Ariana Rood.

“It’s difficult, but you have to find a way to adjust to it,” Mandan coach Tanner Purintun said. “I didn’t think we did a great job of that tonight. I thought the fouls were a huge issue and at the end of the day we have to play defense without fouling. We have to do a better job of adjusting.”

Leelee Bell, Sisi Stevick, Maggie Fricke and Kinley Bartsch all had baskets late in the first half to give the Majettes a 42-32 advantage going into the break.

When McAllister wasn’t on the bench due to foul trouble, she was Minot High’s primary focus. Knutson drew the defensive assignment on McAllister, who entered Tuesday’s game as the sixth-leading scorer in the WDA with 19.3 points per game.

“My mindset was to just not let her get any 3s,” Knutson said. “She shoots a lot of 3s, so to just keep a hand in her face and make sure she doesn’t shoot her 3s.”

Knutson limited her to 10 points on just two made field goals.

“Eve Knutson did a heck of a job on McAllister,” Schwarz said. “She’s their best player and their top scorer and she averages 19. Eve Knutson did a really good job. (McAllister) was really frustrated. She did the job on her. We did a pretty good job keeping the ball away from their post for the most part. Anything that they got, they had to work for it.”

The Braves closed the gap to six points early in the second half, but the Majettes countered with a 7-0 run to push the advantage back to double figures at 51-38. Bell had 18 of her game-high 30 points in the second half – 12 coming from the free-throw line.

The Braves were whistled for 15 more fouls in the second half and Minot High was in the bonus just over seven minutes in. AnnaClaire Bugbee was called for her fourth foul with 15:38 remaining in the game and fouled again in the final moments. Tatum Radke, McAllister each finished with four fouls. Rood and Bartsch also had four fouls.

Mandan made a run with baskets from Hadley Harris and Bugbee to claw within 64-57 with 7:21 left. But Minot High always had an answer in the second half. The Majettes scored 12 of the next 18 points to push the lead to 76-63.

“They really had to work for everything that they got tonight,” Schwarz said of Mandan. “That kind of held that lead. Anytime they got a bucket it seemed like within a possession or two we would get one and we would answer and keep that gap where it was.”

Bell, Bartsch, Knutson and Fricke were all scoring contributors down the stretch.

“Tonight was a team win,” Fricke said. “That was probably the best game we played as a team. Everyone contributed. It wasn’t very much of an offensive game. It was more about breaking the press and getting the ball down court.”

Bartsch (18 points), Fricke (16) and Knutson (11) all joined Bell in double figures. Bartsch had Minot High’s lone 3-pointer.

With the win, Minot High now has wins over the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 teams in the state media poll with Mandan, West Fargo Horace and Century. But Minot High isn’t paying much attention to the rankings.

“It proves a lot that we work very hard,” Fricke said. “At the end of the day we don’t want to look at our ranking. We’ve been ranked in the past and it hasn’t gone our way. We had a tough practice right before this knowing we can’t go easy because we’re playing a tough team.”

Radke led the Braves with 15 points. Harris (12), Bugbee (11) and McAllister (10) also finished in double figures.

While frustrated with the first loss of the season, Purintun said his team will learn from the defeat.

“We have to learn from it and whether we would have won this game tonight you have to learn from these games,” Purintun said. “That’s what it’s all about. We are very far from playing our best basketball, but we want to be playing our best basketball in March. This can be something we learn from. We’re not going to dwell on it, but we’re going to watch the film and learn from this.”

Minot High travels to take on Bismarck Legacy on Friday, Jan. 23, at 6 p.m. While not ranked No. 2 like their last two opponents, the Sabers are receiving votes in the latest poll.