Glenburn’s Emma Jones holds up the District 6 Tournament trophy as teammates celebrate following the Panthers victory over Glenburn in the district title game at the Minot Municipal Auditorium on Saturday, Feb. 14. Mike Kraft/MDN

The Glenburn girls basketball team had its eyes on something much more than flowers and chocolates on Valentine’s Day.

The Panthers wanted the District 6 championship trophy.

They had to wait until the final couple hours remaining in the holiday, but the Panthers returned to Glenburn with their first district title since 2021, defeating Berthold, 46-38, in the District 6 championship game on Saturday, Feb. 14, at the Minot Municipal Auditorium. The top-seeded Panthers now have more than a week off before returning to the same location to battle Powers Lake-Burke Central – the No. 4 seed from District 5 – in the Region 3 quarterfinals on Monday, Feb. 23.

“It’s definitely a different team,” Glenburn coach Jordan Pederson said when comparing the past two district-winning teams he’s coached. “They were both a lot of fun. These girls that we have this year are a blast. They really are a tight-knit group and that part has been fun having them all play together and enjoy each other’s success.”

In a battle of two teams with the same school colors of purple and gold and 2,000-point career scorers on their rosters in Glenburn’s Emma Jones and Berthold’s Addison Neshem, it was the purple and gold of Glenburn that ruled supreme, as the Panthers completed both an undefeated regular season and postseason run through district opponents.

It’s been a year to remember as it relates to girls athletics at Glenburn High School. In the fall, the Panthers won their first district title in program history, and Jones was front and center leading that resurgence as well.

“It means a lot that we’ve had a good season like this,” Jones said. “We haven’t had a good season for quite some time and it feels good that we could have almost the same kind of thing going that we had in volleyball. It’s a good group of girls I’m with and I really appreciate them.”

The highly-anticipated matchup between two of the top scorers in the state turned more into a defensive slugfest, with neither team and neither player able to muster up much offense, especially early. Neither team recorded a point through the first 2:30 of the contest before Ava Stevens got her team on the board.

Neshem had the only two points of the opening quarter for the Bombers, who trailed 6-2 at the end of one.

The Panthers (18-4) found a bit of rhythm offensively over the next two quarters despite Jones being limited to six points through three quarters. A 3-pointer and a pair of three throws from Stevens, who had to swap jerseys midway through the second quarter due to blood, gave Glenburn a 19-6 lead late in the first half. Berthold closed the half with five unanswered points with a 3 from Shayne Simons and a steal and layup from Neshem to get within 19-11.

“Sometimes we just struggle,” Pederson said. “That’s going to happen. We have to grind through it to get to where we want to be. I thought they battled really well.”

Along with leading the offense, Neshem drew the defensive assignment on Jones. Jones opened the third quarter with her only bucket of the frame to push the lead back to double figures, but Neshem kept her off the board until the fourth quarter.

“We really feel that Addison is one of the better defenders in the state, so we decided to have her defend her man-to-man and we would go from there,” Berthold coach Ken Keysor said. “But Emma Jones is such a force both offensively and defensively. You’re not shutting her down, you just hope to contain her.”

The Panthers were just fine with Jones being a distributor rather than a scorer, as they led by double digits throughout the majority of the second half. An 11-1 run to open the third quarter pushed the Glenburn lead to 30-13, its largest of the game.

Back-to-back 3s from Audra Deaver and Lily Schepp and a bucket from Ella Brown cut Berthold’s deficit down to single figures, but the Panthers responded by scoring six of the final eight points of the third quarter to build a 36-23 advantage going into the fourth.

Jones did the bulk of her scoring in the fourth, knocking down a jumper along with her only 3-pointer of the contest. She had the only two field goals of the quarter, as the remaining five points all came at the free-throw line. Jones finished with 13 points and was named to both the District 6 all-tournament team and named the district’s senior athlete of the year. Jones was a seventh grader on the team when the Panthers won their last district title.

“I’ve seen a lot of growth,” Pederson said. “She had a good model to follow there out of those girls. She was able to see that and she’s brought that along throughout her career and she’s really done a good job of modeling that for this team that we have now.”

Neshem entered the fourth quarter with 10 points and nearly matched that offensive output in the fourth quarter. She scored her team’s final six points as the Bombers attempted a last-ditch comeback attempt hoping to repeat as the district champions.

The Bombers (16-6) got as close as five at 43-38 on Neshem’s 18th and final point of the contest in the final minute, but the Panthers salted the game away at the free-throw line. Jones knocked down a pair and Mila Jones hit 1 of 2 to end Glenburn’s title drought.

“We’ve grown a lot over the years,” Glenburn senior Aubrie Quick said. “Our coach is the reason we’re here today and I think the reason we’re here is because we all worked together and it’s going to be great going into the regional tournament. It’s been a lot of hard work. It’s been a lot of days practicing, putting in as much work as we can. That sums it up.”

Stevens led the Panthers with 14 points.

Even though the loss stings at the moment, Keysor can live with the fact that the consolation prize means still playing basketball for at least another week.

“The weight gets lifted from your shoulders after the semifinal night,” Keysor said. “There’s a large disappointment right now not being the district champions, but there’s about four or five other teams that would like to be in the position we’re in, so we’ll live with that.”

The Bombers will play Divide County in the quarterfinal round of the regional tournament.

Emma Jones, Mila Jones, Neshem and Simmons were named to the district all-tournament team. Pederson was named District 6 coach of the year.