Berthold’s Audra Deaver goes up for a shot in the lane during the second half of a Region 3 semifinal game against Kenmare-Bowbells on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at the Minot Municipal Auditorium Mike Kraft/MDN

It wouldn’t be a Class B Region 3 Tournament without a matchup between the Berthold and Kenmare-Bowbells girls basketball teams.

In all three years of the new-look Region 3 landscape under the 3-class system, the Bombers and Honkers have crossed paths with one another. Kenmare-Bowbells took the first meeting in 2024 in the semifinals and Berthold won last year in the title game.

The rubber match belonged to the Bombers, as they held off a fourth-quarter charge from the Honkers to secure their spot in the Region 3 title game for the second year in a row with a 56-49 victory in the semifinal round on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at the Minot Municipal Auditorium. Addison Neshem finished with a game-high 25 points for the Bombers, who are now just one win away from a second consecutive trip to the state tournament.

“Kenmare-Bowbells has been king of the hill,” Berthold coach Ken Keysor said. “Anytime you can get a win against them, I know last year we ended up beating them in the championship game, but anytime you can get a win against a quality team like Kenmare-Bowbells, you take a deep sigh. Now, the only problem is you have to come back on Thursday night and you’re going to play another high-quality team. But to get to the championship night feels good.”

Berthold will play Tioga for the region championship on Thursday, Feb. 26, at the Minot Municipal Auditorium at approximately 7:30 p.m. The Pirates toppled Glenburn, 67-58, in the second semifinal.

The Bombers (18-6) appeared fully in control midway through the third quarter. Ashtyn Erickson beat the buzzer on a 3-pointer to give Berthold a 32-16 lead heading into halftime and Berthold grew its lead all the way to 20 with 4:31 remaining in the third quarter. Audra Deaver had five quick points and Neshem completed a 3-point play to put the Bombers up 42-22.

The Honkers (18-6) had only made eight field goals to that point, but started to gather a bit of momentum before the end of the third, connected on four shots to trim the deficit down to 44-30 and keep the game in reach.

Kenmare-Bowbells yielded the first four points of the fourth quarter to Neshem before catching fire from beyond the 3-point line. The Honkers ripped off four consecutive 3s to spark a 12-0 run to get within 48-42 midway through the final stanza.

“It got close to getting away from us for sure,” Kenmare-Bowbells coach Michael Zimmer said. “They’re just young and they worked hard and kept after it. We kept encouraging them and told them that they were getting good looks and they’re going to start going in and once we started making a couple, it’s kind of contagious.”

Taya Aufforth sparked the 3-point onslaught and Mersadie Miller responded with a 3 of her own. McKenna Mau knocked down the final two 3s. The Honkers connected on just one 3-pointer through three quarters.

“We left some really quality 3-point shooters open,” Keysor said. “We kind of got lost on a couple of switches. Shayne Simons – our senior – I give her all the credit in the world because in one of the timeouts she told the team that if we switch, we have to stay switched and not decide to do something else. It was a quality catch by her.”

After Simons offered some defensive advice in the huddle, she helped stop the bleeding on offense, netting back-to-back baskets to push the lead back to double digits at 52-42. But the Honkers continued to hit shots. Aufforth hit her second 3 of the game as part of a 7-1 run to pull within 53-49 – the closest they had been since the opening quarter.

“We knew there was going to be a run at some point, but we just had to cool ourselves down, calm down and be strong with the ball,” Neshem said.

The Bombers kept the Honkers off the board for the final 1:50. Simons hit a pair of free throws with 54 seconds left and Ella Brown hit 1 of 2 to make it a three-possession game with 11.2 seconds remaining, ending Kenmare-Bowbells’ comeback bid.

“We got a little bit frantic, but we’ve done it multiple times before where we’ve had to step it up a notch in moments like those, so it wasn’t anything new for us,” Simons said. “It was definitely just keeping our composure and figuring it out.”

Simons joined Neshem in double figures with 12 points. The lone senior on the team relished being able to play for another region title and spot in the state tournament after all the roster changeover from last year’s team that accomplished the same feat.

“It feels really special, especially this year being my senior year, it feels even better,” Simons said. “We had a brand new group of girls coming into this season. It feels really good to see our hard work really pay off. Last year, we definitely had more of a steady run, whereas this year there’s been a lot of ups and downs. But we’ve done a really good job of weathering the storm and continuing to come out on top.”

Aufforth hit the first shot of the night for the Honkers, but the team went cold from the field the rest of the opening half. They hit just six shots and struggled at the free throw line as well, going 3-for-8. Kenmare-Bowbells went the opening 3:04 of the second quarter without a point.

Meanwhile, Neshem nearly matched Kenmare-Bowbells’ field goal total in the first half herself, knocking down five shots and putting up 14 points in the first 16 minutes.

“They are a really good team and we just had to come out right away like we did tonight and just play hard on defense and rebound as well as we can,” Neshem said.

Even though the points weren’t coming for Kenmare-Bowbells, Aufforth was giving the Bombers trouble down in the paint, creating some early foul trouble. Ella Brown picked up her second foul with 2:29 left in the first quarter and sat out most of the half. Lily Schepp was whistled for her third foul with 2:47 left in the second quarter.

“She was abusing us that first quarter,” Keysor said. “We called a timeout and told the team that it’s not enough to just put a body on her. You have to jump for the ball. If we have to put two bodies on her then we’ll put two bodies on her.”

Auffforth finished with a team-high 17 points.

The silver lining for the Honkers is a path to the state tournament still exists. They have to win the third-place game against Glenburn and then come out on top in a state-qualifier on Saturday, Feb. 28. After the Honkers lost to the Bombers in the region championship last year, they ended up finishing runners-up at the state tournament.

“We wrote it on the wall in the locker room,” Zimmer said. “The goal is to make the state tournament. The goal is still attainable. We just have to come ready on Thursday and get that one done and have another one Saturday and get that one done. It’s one game at a time. The goal is still right where we need it to be.”