North Dakota Preps

Prior to the livestreaming era there were plenty of teams and players nobody outside of that area got to watch play. Who are some of the best teams to not make it to the State B tournament over the years? Region 1 has been very strong lately, Region 2 has been unbelievably strong for years, and there are plenty of times where two of the best teams in the state have met in their Region championship game across the state.

Going back to the early 80's when Newburg was on their run. Westhope had a season with 4 losses. They lost to Newburg twice in District play, lost to Newburg for the District Championship and lost to Newburg in the Regional Championship. I believe each loss was by single digits and Newburg won the State Championship that year.

Just a few 10 years back since I only followed Region 5 & 7 prior to livestreams
Turtle Lake 2009-2010 Season (Lost to Shiloh Region Championship) - TLM was a top 2 rated team in state.
Beulah 2012-2013 (Lost to Dickinson Trinity Region Championship) - Beulah won state in 2011-2012 season.

May-port when Ben Jacobsen was a senior. They were ranked #1 in state, Hankinson was ranked #2 in state and also got beat, they would have played the first round at state!!!

2012-2013: Oak Grove team was solid and highly ranked (5 or 6); lost to eventual State Champs (Milnor) 73-70 in R1 Championship game; Oak Grove won state the next year after losing 5 senior starters.

There are likely better teams listed above but the 2012-13 Oak Grove team averaged over 80 ppg that season

Here is another thread on the same topic.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5307

2010 North Star team that was upset to eventual champ Carrington.

Yeah, that topic derailed quickly talking about one state tournament.

This one seems more to the point

From Region 2 over the last 22 years.

1999 - MPCG
2000 - NB
2001 - Griggs County Central, CV
2002 - Fordville, Thompson, NB, Hillsboro (All ranked in the top 15)
2004 - Larimore, Hillsboro
2005 - Hillsboro
2007- Midway Minto, MPCG
2008 - Park River, NB
2012 - Hatton/Northwood
2015 - Cavalier
2016 - HCV
2017 - Thompson
2019 - HCV
2021 - NB

Oak Grove 2018 - 12 and 0 in Region play and 20 -3 overall. Beat Wyndmere by 21 earlier in the year and lost to them in the Region 1 Championship.

ND Basketball Fan wrote:Oak Grove 2018 - 12 and 0 in Region play and 20 -3 overall. Beat Wyndmere by 21 earlier in the year and lost to them in the Region 1 Championship.

Yep and the whole place was cheering for Wyndmere and Coach Card was so mad he started exchange words with the crowd.... I could not believe it. By the way.... people can cheer for who they want and yep... they always cheer for the underdog. or against the private school.

maddog1971 wrote:

ND Basketball Fan wrote:Oak Grove 2018 - 12 and 0 in Region play and 20 -3 overall. Beat Wyndmere by 21 earlier in the year and lost to them in the Region 1 Championship.

Yep and the whole place was cheering for Wyndmere and Coach Card was so mad he started exchange words with the crowd.... I could not believe it. By the way.... people can cheer for who they want and yep... they always cheer for the underdog. or against the private school.

HAHAHA...yep I remember that, was great to see the Underdog win for once

Just like when Milnor did it in 2013

maddog1971 wrote:

ND Basketball Fan wrote:Oak Grove 2018 - 12 and 0 in Region play and 20 -3 overall. Beat Wyndmere by 21 earlier in the year and lost to them in the Region 1 Championship.

Yep and the whole place was cheering for Wyndmere and Coach Card was so mad he started exchange words with the crowd.... I could not believe it. By the way.... people can cheer for who they want and yep... they always cheer for the underdog. or against the private school.

Well there was one group flashing down the finger towards the coach and bench but yeah, no matter what was happening, he did not handle the situation well in 2018…Players handled it so much better.

Cheer for who you want but do it with class…some chants or comments I’ve heard over the years are appalling…and most aren’t things stated by the youth at the games.

BasketballMind wrote:From Region 2 over the last 22 years.

1999 - definitely not MPCG
2000 - NB that we know of didn't exist yet
2001 - Griggs County Central, not CV
2002 - Fordville-Lankin, Thompson, NB, not Hillsboro (All ranked in the top 15)
2004 - Larimore, Hillsboro
2005 - Hillsboro
2007- Midway Minto, MPCG
2008 - Park River, NB
2012 - Hatton/Northwood
2015 - Cavalier
2016 - HCV
2017 - Thompson
2019 - HCV
2021 - NB

Made some edits for ya Thank me later

Maple Valley for a four-year stretch from 2010 to 2013 won around 75 total games but never got to a District 2 or Region 1 final.

2012: Lost on a last-second shot in the Region 1 semifinal to Central Cass.
2013: Lost to Oak Grove by 3 in the Region 1 semifinal. Beat state champion Milnor twice that year.

Maple Valley has had quality teams quite often just haven't made it over the hump (boys or girls)

WalkingStick wrote:Maple Valley has had quality teams quite often just haven't made it over the hump (boys or girls)

Oh, so true.