Leelee Bell was unanimously named Miss Basketball on Friday, March 27, becoming the third female player from Minot High to win the award. Bell averaged 28 points and 12 rebounds per game this season, helping the Majettes win their third state title in program history. Mike Kraft/MDN

Two state titles. Three WDA championships. Five all-state, all-WDA and all-state tournament team selections. Three North Dakota Girls Basketball Gatorade Player of the Year honors. One Division I scholarship to the University of Oklahoma.

Minot High senior Leelee Bell has had not just one of the most decorated careers in Majettes’ history, but one of the most decorated careers in the history of North Dakota high school basketball. On Friday, March 27, Bell added one final accolade to her treasure trove, as she was unanimously named North Dakota’s Miss Basketball, an award bestowed to the best senior high school girls basketball player by the North Dakota Associated Press Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (NDAPSSA). She received all 20 first-place votes, garnering 100 points in the voting.

“It means a lot to me and I’m glad I was able to do that, especially with it being unanimous,” Bell said. “I’m blessed and I kind of have no words for it.”

Bell was one of four finalists for the award along with teammate Maggie Fricke, Fargo Davies’ Fallon Passanante and Thompson’s Addy Sage. Fricke finished second in the voting with 33 points, while Passanante (32) was third and Sage (15) fourth.

“It’s pretty special,” Minot High coach Jason Schwarz said. “Just the thing she needed to finish off her career. She had such an outstanding career. She was healthy throughout the whole time and put up some awesome numbers and accomplished some things as a team and she was certainly the leader of that in so many ways.”

Bell becomes the third Majette in program history to be named Miss Basketball, joining Holly Johnson in 2012 and Shelley Berg in 1992. Johnson averaged 17.5 points, 8 rebounds and 3.2 assists as a senior, leading Minot High to a fifth-place finish at the state tournament. She played three years at North Dakota State before transferring to Minot State for her senior season. Berg went on to play four years at Weber State, averaging 7.9 points and 6.5 rebounds in 107 games.

Minot High now has the third-most Miss Basketball winners all-time, breaking a tie with Wahpeton and Bismarck Century, who both have two representatives. Mandan has the most with seven and Fargo Shanley is fourth with four. This is the fourth year in a row the award has been given to a Division AA/Class A player. West Fargo’s Jaiden Haile, Grand Forks Red River’s Jocelyn Schiller and Bismarck Century’s Logan Nissley were the last three winners before Bell.

Bell led the WDA in scoring this season with 28 points per game and was second in rebounds with nearly 12 per game. She also averaged 2.5 steals and 2.5 assists per game. Bell helped guide the Majettes to their third state championship, scoring 84 points in three games at the state tournament. In the title game against Fargo Davies, Bell registered a double-double with 34 points and 12 rebounds and was named tournament MVP.

Bell – a varsity starter since eighth grade – reached rarified air and rewrote the record books. She eclipsed the 3,000-point milestone, becoming just the third North Dakota girls basketball player to hit that mark. Already the all-time leading scorer in girls Division AA/Class A, Bell finished with 3,159 career points, second all-time behind only Maple Valley’s Rylee Nudell, who scored 3,458 points in her career. She also became the all-time rebounds leader in Division AA/Class A with 1,392 – sixth all-time in North Dakota girls basketball.

Bell scored at least 16 points in every game as a senior. She finished with eight 30+ point games and had a season-high 42 in the WDA quarterfinal against Bismarck St. Mary’s. Bell amassed 102 points and grabbed 38 rebounds during the WDA Tournament. Bell finished with 19 double-doubles. She had 29 points and 23 rebounds in a 70-67 victory against Bismarck High.

Schwarz said there’s not too many players like Bell who possess the height of a forward, but also the skill set of a guard.

“The thing that kind of separates her with her height at the next level is there are a lot of players that are her height going into college and they are strictly a post player,” Schwarz said. “She’s not that at all. She’s also a guard and we used her that way a lot. She’d get the rebound and bring the ball up the court. She would just stop and pop sometimes because she’s so tall that she can shoot over anybody. When a post player is on her, they back off and let her shoot it because they might get beat off the dribble. And then when someone came out on her, she’d be able to drive by them and get to the basket a lot of the time. That’s what Oklahoma sees in her is someone that can do it all.”

Along with winning her second state title – the first coming during her eighth-grade year – Bell also won her third WDA tournament title. The Majettes finished 27-1 overall and 17-1 in WDA play. Bell finished her career 120-17 overall and 82-8 in five years with Minot High.

“I think I’ve grown astronomically,” Bell said. “It’s been amazing. I’m glad I could have done that. I never would have guessed as an eighth grader that I would have been this much improved and having the offers I had and committing to Oklahoma and all of these opportunities that I’ve gotten. I’m glad that I have had coach Schwarz to help me with all of it and the coaching staff and my dad and everything.”

Having one player nominated for Miss Basketball is an accomplishment in itself, but having two representatives from Minot High on the list of finalists showed the level of talent on the Majettes’ roster.

“It doesn’t happen very often and to have it with me and Maggie, we’ve grown up together and she is an amazing person and I’m glad I was up there with her,” Bell said. “She’s just as happy for me that I got it.”

Fricke’s career was defined by overcoming adversity. She partially tore her ACL at the tail end of her sophomore season and fully tore her ACL at the beginning of her junior season, costing her all but three games that year and six more to start her senior campaign.

Back on the court, Fricke averaged 16.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game this year and scored 75 points at the state tournament. Despite all the time missed due to injury, she finished her career with 1,990 points.

“It wouldn’t have been right for her not to have been up for the award,” Schwarz said. “She certainly had a huge part of our championships. You look at the numbers she put up in both tournaments and the first one she was the MVP. If she’s graduating in a different year than Leelee then maybe she’s walking away with the award. She’s very, very deserving and it would have been hard to not see her up for this award.”

On the boys side, West Fargo Horace’s Carter Evanson was named Mr. Basketball, receiving 13 first-place votes and totaling 78 points. Evanson was the lone Class AA representative on the list of finalists. Beulah’s Braylen Schirado finished second with one first-place vote and 31 points after guiding the Miners to a Class A state title. Hankinson’s RaeShaun Earl (26 points), Central McLean’s Aiden Hanson (23) and Towner-Granville-Upham’s Sage Hanson (22) all received two first-place votes to round out the voting.