North Dakota Preps

STATE TOURNEY
@ Betty Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks

Thursday, February 28th
G1: Kindred def. #2 Langdon/Edmore/Munich 58-43
G2: #3 Thompson def. Shiloh Christian 67-23
G3: Rugby def. #1 Kidder County 47-39
G4: #5 Hettinger-Scranton def. #4 Trenton 48-44 F/OT

Friday, March 1st
G5: #2 Langdon/Edmore/Munich def. Shiloh Christian 48-34
G6: #1 Kidder County def. #4 Trenton 46-30
G7: Kindred def. #3 Thompson 56-54
G8: Rugby def. #5 Hettinger-Scranton 42-35

Saturday, March 2nd
7th Place: #4 Trenton def. Shiloh Christian 45-31
5th Place: #2 Langdon/Edmore/Munich def. #1 Kidder County 53-42
3rd Place: #3 Thompson def. #5 Hettinger-Scranton 52-46
Championship: Kindred def. Rugby 49-47

1st: Kindred (23-3)
2nd: Rugby (22-5)
3rd: Thompson (23-3)
4th: Hettinger-Scranton (23-3)
5th: Langdon/Edmore/Munich (23-3)
6th: Kidder County (25-2)
7th: Trenton (25-2)
8th: Shiloh Christian (18-9)

Senior Athlete of the Year: Taylor Zak, Thompson
Coach of the Year: Dan Welder, Kidder County

All-Tournament Team
Kindred: Abby Duchscherer, Terryn Johnson
Rugby: Anni Stier
Thompson: Mackenzie Hughes, Kaia Sorby
Hettinger-Scranton: Samantha Oase, Alyssa Andress
Langdon/Edmore/Munich: Callie Ronningen
Kidder County: Madelyn Schmidt
Trenton: Kaity Hove

Tournament MVP: Abby Duchscherer, Kindred

Rugby an 8 seed?!?! oofff....

Class B wrote:Rugby an 8 seed?!?! oofff....

1st of 3 teams drawn randomly out of a hat...they only seed the Top 5.

Class B wrote:Rugby an 8 seed?!?! oofff....

I think if they seed it 1-8, they end up 7.

Predictions

1. Trenton
2. Thompson
3. Kidder County
4. Kindred
5. Hettinger-Scranton
6. Langdon-Edmore-Munich
7. Rugby
8. Shiloh Christian

I'm staying with my pick the Trenton Tigers. But if Hettinger-Scranton beats Trenton then I'll go for Hettinger-Scranton.

Flip wrote:

Class B wrote:Rugby an 8 seed?!?! oofff....

I think if they seed it 1-8, they end up 7.

logic would say this...

Rugby's losses have all been on Saturday...unbeaten all other days of the week. So:
1. Dunno
2. Rugby
3-8 No Idea

Looking at common opponents( Harvey and Carrington), Rugby struggled with Harvey and lost to Carrington while KC handled Harvey with ease and beat Carrington. So I will take KC over Rugby. Have not seen any other teams so will say Thompson, LEM, and Trenton in other matchups.

yellowjacket wrote:Looking at common opponents( Harvey and Carrington), Rugby struggled with Harvey and lost to Carrington while KC handled Harvey with ease and beat Carrington. So I will take KC over Rugby. Have not seen any other teams so will say Thompson, LEM, and Trenton in other matchups.

Carrington beat Rugby by very few, KC beat Carrington by very few. To me, KC has more balance- everyone that plays can shoot the heck out of the ball. KC could run into trouble with their lack of depth (play about 6). Rugby will have the speed advantage. I want to go with the upset but my gut says Kidder will slide by.

I got to believe this is going to be very competitive state tournament this year. Langdon vs Kindred should be very close game they match up well against each other and based on common opponents they would also indicate close game. Thompson should be favored in this game and especially after just playing on the Betty. Kidder county vs Rugby again should be very competitive game. Then there's Trenton vs Hettinger Scranton both with impressive records my guess it will be close game and see who get over tournament nerves. I think you could play tournament several times and no won would repeat because I think this very balance tournament no clear cut favorite to win the title.

Sorenson23 wrote:Predictions

1. Trenton
2. Thompson
3. Kidder County
4. Kindred
5. Hettinger-Scranton
6. Langdon-Edmore-Munich
7. Rugby
8. Shiloh Christian

I'm staying with my pick the Trenton Tigers. But if Hettinger-Scranton beats Trenton then I'll go for Hettinger-Scranton.

All Hettinger-Scranton (or any team) needs to do is get Trenton a little flustered and they’ll earn the win. Both semifinal and championship games saw Trenton fighting hard for their wins.

"All Hettinger-Scranton (or any team) needs to do is get Trenton a little flustered and they’ll earn the win."

I don't see it this way. They've been flustered by Stanley (twice), Rugby, Mandaree, and Parshall (3 times). They've taken everybody's best shot, including trailing by 14 in the Region 8 championship game and they're still undefeated. This team is incredibly well-coached and prepared. I'm not saying they're unbeatable, but you'll have to do more than fluster the Tigers to hand them their first loss of the year.

aNDkid91 wrote:

Sorenson23 wrote:Predictions

1. Trenton
2. Thompson
3. Kidder County
4. Kindred
5. Hettinger-Scranton
6. Langdon-Edmore-Munich
7. Rugby
8. Shiloh Christian

I'm staying with my pick the Trenton Tigers. But if Hettinger-Scranton beats Trenton then I'll go for Hettinger-Scranton.

All Hettinger-Scranton (or any team) needs to do is get Trenton a little flustered and they’ll earn the win. Both semifinal and championship games saw Trenton fighting hard for their wins.

I agree with the poster before me. You contradicted yourself. It's true that Trenton has had to play quite a few close games lately, but the fact that they've won ALL of them means there is a low probability of them getting frustrated and losing their composure, like you suggest.

I will be surprised if Trenton wins more than 1 game, and I think there's a good chance they will go winless. They played no one that was in the final top 10, and only Rugby that was RV (won by 2). Whether it's basketball or volleyball, I've seen too many western teams with great records get trounced once they get to a state tourney (exception for private schools like B.R.)

vikingman wrote:Whether it's basketball or volleyball, I've seen too many western teams with great records get trounced once they get to a state tourney (exception for private schools like B.R.)

Grant County (1st), Killdeer (2nd), and Medina (3rd) seemed to do okay in last year's GBB tourney...

airmail wrote:

vikingman wrote:Whether it's basketball or volleyball, I've seen too many western teams with great records get trounced once they get to a state tourney (exception for private schools like B.R.)

Grant County (1st), Killdeer (2nd), and Medina (3rd) seemed to do okay in last year's GBB tourney...

Beach has had some good showings...Bottineau back in the day went 3 in a row...Watford City has had some decent showings as well.

I'm going out on a limb and saying that whatever team wins the Trenton/Hettinger-Scranton matchup is winning the whole thing. I have a feeling an overlooked team will again take it all home.

Run4Fun2009 wrote:

airmail wrote:

vikingman wrote:Whether it's basketball or volleyball, I've seen too many western teams with great records get trounced once they get to a state tourney (exception for private schools like B.R.)

Grant County (1st), Killdeer (2nd), and Medina (3rd) seemed to do okay in last year's GBB tourney...

Beach has had some good showings...Bottineau back in the day went 3 in a row...Watford City has had some decent showings as well.

There were two West teams in the finals last year. One seeded and the other not. Not saying I think Trenton will win it all, but any team that comes into the State Tournament unbeaten has accomplished a pretty big feat already. I don’t know how you can overlook a 24-0 team, anyway. I guess that is a good way to make them 25-0.

Thoughts on Rugby? Been to state 3 of the last 4 years. The previous 2 times I was expecting them to do better, based off their record. Were they just not that good or did they under-perform to their abilities?

vikingman wrote:I will be surprised if Trenton wins more than 1 game, and I think there's a good chance they will go winless. They played no one that was in the final top 10, and only Rugby that was RV (won by 2). Whether it's basketball or volleyball, I've seen too many western teams with great records get trounced once they get to a state tourney (exception for private schools like B.R.)

Can someone please explain this anti-west sentiment?
Here's a look at some state champions since 2006.:

2006 - Bottineau
2007 - Bottineau over New Salem
2008 - Bottineau over Bowman County
2010 - Beach
2013 - Bishop Ryan
2014 - Bishop Ryan over Shiloh Christian
2015 - Bishop Ryan
2016 - Shiloh Christian over Watford City
2018 - Grant County over Killdeer

9 of the last 13 state champions have come from the west, including 5 all-west state championship games. This notion that the east is the ACC and Big 12 while the west is some mid-major just doesn't make sense. I know the polls play a role in this mindset. I guarantee that if Trenton had stubbed their toe and actually lost to Stanley, Parshall, Rugby or Mandaree they would've fallen out of the top 10 and been unseeded going to state.

One last point about western teams playing well at state. A lot of these state tournaments were played in Fargo and Grand Forks. I know it will never happen, but I would love it if state got hosted in Dickinson or Williston just once. Hearing folks from Regions 1 & 2 complain about having to drive past Bismarck would be a tad humorous to me.

Run4Fun2009 wrote:

airmail wrote:

vikingman wrote:Whether it's basketball or volleyball, I've seen too many western teams with great records get trounced once they get to a state tourney (exception for private schools like B.R.)

Grant County (1st), Killdeer (2nd), and Medina (3rd) seemed to do okay in last year's GBB tourney...

Beach has had some good showings...Bottineau back in the day went 3 in a row...Watford City has had some decent showings as well.

I wouldn't consider Medina or Bottineau as being from the west -

I don't consider Medina to be west either. However, Bottineau plays in Region 6. Does west only include Regions 7 and 8?

Thundersnow wrote:Can someone please explain this anti-west sentiment?

He did say when you take out the private schools. It does look different when you take out Ryan and Shiloh.

Thundersnow wrote:I don't consider Medina to be west either. However, Bottineau plays in Region 6. Does west only include Regions 7 and 8?

He included Ryan in the discussion so R5 & R6 seemed to be included IMO

Flip wrote:Thoughts on Rugby? Been to state 3 of the last 4 years. The previous 2 times I was expecting them to do better, based off their record. Were they just not that good or did they under-perform to their abilities?

I've seen Rugby play a couple times this year and I was impressed. Tough draw for KC and wouldn't be surprised if Rugby gives them a run or even beats them. I was also impressed with KC the 4 times I saw them play. I think it will be a battle. This year's tournament has a lot of parity. Should be a good one. In fact I think there's 7 teams in this tourney that can legitimately win it.

Rugby beat a tough Velva team to get there. If you play the common opponents game with Velva and some of the other state qualifiers, you will realize how good of a win that was.

Don't sleep on Rugby. They have length and athletism... pick your poison. They are very difficult to defend.