Minot High’s Kinley Bartsch tracks down a loose ball in front of Century’s Kinley Thorton (4) and Abby Fosland during the first half of a WDA contest at Magic City Campus on Friday, Feb. 20 Mike Kraft/MDN

Minot High girls basketball coach Jason Schwarz didn’t need to reach too far into his bag of tricks to motivate his squad Friday night.

The Majettes had plenty of incentives headed into their game against Bismarck Century.

For starters, Minot High was coming off its first loss of the season a few nights earlier against Mandan, leaving a bad taste in its mouth. Secondly, a win against the Patriots would lock up Minot High’s third consecutive West Region regular season title. And perhaps most importantly, they were playing for something bigger than basketball, hosting Pink Night to raise funds for the Winczewski family, as Jackie Winczewski is in the midst of her battle with cancer.

All of that motivation was on full display, as the Majettes dominated their rival from the capital city in a 69-51 victory at Magic City Campus on Feb. 20. Minot High has not lost consecutive regular season conference games since the 2020-21 season, which was the last year the Majettes finished with a losing record.

“A staple of our program is to respond when there is adversity,” Schwarz said. “Adversity should help strengthen you. Don’t let it weaken you. Make it make you stronger and that’s been a solid focus of ours and that’s probably a lot of why that has happened.”

In a battle of the WDA’s top offense in Minot High’s 76.9 points per game vs. the WDA’s top defense in Century’s 48.9 points allowed per game, it was the Majettes that came out on top. Minot High gave the Patriots a taste of their own medicine, as the Majettes’ defense limited Century’s offense to a season-low output.

The Majettes (19-1 overall, 16-1 WDA) led wire-to-wire in a sharp contrast from the previous meeting in Bismarck on Jan. 16, when Minot High played a more contested game in its 69-61 victory. Minot High scored 15 of the game’s first 20 points, building a double-digit lead 5:20 into the contest after a 3-pointer from Leelee Ball made it 15-5.

The Majettes led by as many as 13 in the first half and took a 30-19 lead into the break. Minot High’s defense limited Century to just seven field goals in the opening 18 minutes.

It didn’t take long into the second half for the Majettes to break the game open. They came out of the locker room on a 13-0 run, fueled by eight straight points from Bell. Ariana Rood had a bucket and Kinley Bartsch knocked down her third 3-pointer of the contest to polish off the run. A 3-pointer by Teagan Schmidt stopped the bleeding for the Patriots (17-4, 13-4), who found themselves trailing 43-22 with 13:14 remaining.

Bell poured in 20 points in the second half, doing all of her damage inside and taking advantage of her size advantage. She finished with a game-high 32 points.

“I knew my mismatch,” Bell said. “I’m a big girl out here. I’m taller than just about everyone out on the court, so I knew if I could get it down low that I could finish my shots at the rim.”

Rood also found her scoring touch in the second half, netting 11 of her 15 points after halftime. Rood and Bell scored 31 of their team’s 39 points in the second half, including the final 17.

“A loss honestly made us stronger,” Rood said. “We wanted to bounce back. A loss is good for us because we have that confidence that we know we have to work harder.”

Having suffered their first loss of the season just a few days prior to their game against Century, the short turnaround didn’t give the Majettes anytime to dwell on the end to their undefeated run.

“Great teams always bounce back,” Schwarz said. “When something like that happens in a tournament, you don’t have time to dwell on anything, you have to bounce back right away. That’s what was nice about being able to have only two days and then we’re playing again. It’s enough time to work on things to clean up, which we were able to do a little bit, but you just want to get that taste out of your mouth, which we were able to do tonight.”

The Majettes were 3-0 following a loss last season, winning by an average of 13 points per game. They haven’t lost back-to-back games in any capacity since the state tournament during the 2023-24 season, where they lost the semifinal and third-place game.

The victory cements Minot High’s third straight WDA regular season title with one game remaining on the schedule. The Majettes are 49-2 in conference play over the last three seasons.

“It gives us a lot of confidence going into the big tournament,” Rood said. “I know we’ve been playing really well, but when it gets to the big tournament, we have to play our best basketball. It gives us that confidence and boost, but we can’t underestimate teams when we go into the big tournament because everyone plays better.”

Bell, Rood and Bartsch all finished in double figures, with Bartsch adding 11 after opening the game with a pair of 3s.

Kinley Thorton led the Patriots with 12 points.

Minot High closes out the regular season against Bismarck Legacy on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 6 p.m. at Magic City Campus.

While earning the No. 1 seed in the WDA Tournament and bouncing back from a loss was nice, Friday was about more than just basketball, as it was also a time to come together to support an important cause to the Minot community. It was Minot High’s annual Pink Night, where the Majettes wore special white jerseys with pink lettering and the coaching staff and spectators donned pink attire to support the Winczewski family. A silent auction took place during both the girls and boys games, with all the proceeds going to the family to support Jackie’s fight against cancer. Jackie is an administrative assistant at Minot High School and her husband Dean is the former boys basketball coach.

Last year, Pink Night was dedicated to Minot High girls assistant coach Gary Walhaug and his fight with cancer.

“She’s been fighting and coach (Gary) Walhaug has been fighting,” Schwarz said. “This night was for him last year. We’re keeping both of them in our thoughts continuously. The kids say a prayer every day before practice and before games for coach Walhaug and we certainly have our thoughts with Mrs. Winczewski as well. They’re fighting battles we know nothing about. It’s hard to put yourself in their shoes and all we can do is be there to support them in any way we can.”