BEMIDJI -- The Bemidji High School girls basketball team steamrolled past North St. Paul to a 82-43 victory in the Bemidji Invitational Wednesday night at the BHS Gymnasium.
The Lumberjacks (4-6) owned a 10-0 lead before the Polars (2-6) even had a chance to get on the scoreboard, which eventually led to what Bemidji head coach Steve Schreiber called the most complete game his side had played this season.
“This was the best game we played all year,” he said. “Girl No. 1 through girl No. 10 played just completely solid. I told them after the game here, I said, ‘I don’t even really have any complaints.’ Because even the shots we missed we crashed really hard for offensive rebounds. (I’m) just really, really happy with our effort tonight.”
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Allison Beard and Lindsey Hildenbrand each came off the bench to score 13 points apiece to lead the way for Bemidji. Kennedy Mills, Mackenzie Nicklason and Katie Alto also broke double digits by tallying 12, 10 and 10 points, respectively, with Macy Flatness scoring nine points.
“We played aggressive and we played confident,” Schreiber said. “We weren’t afraid of making a mistake tonight and I think because of that it, it just was contagious. All five girls on the court played together on defense and we played confident on defense. And because of that it just led for us to be able to push the ball.”
The halftime score stood at 43-17 in favor of the Lumberjacks, though North St. Paul scored the last four points of the first half and the first four points of the second half for an 8-0 run that spanned two halves. However, a dagger of a 3-pointer by Mills made it 46-21 and put an end to whatever momentum the Polars had gathered.
At one point in the second half, the Jacks rattled off 16 straight points to assume a 72-37 lead before landing at the final score of 82-43.
Bemidji will conclude the tournament this afternoon with a game against Park of Cottage Grove. The game is expected to start at approximately 4 p.m. at the BHS Gymnasium following the Detroit Lakes/North St. Paul game.
Park defeated Detroit Lakes 65-30 in the first game of the evening Wednesday and will bring a 9-1 record into today’s game with the Lumberjacks.
“They’re really fast,” Schreiber said of the Wolfpack. “They’re short like us and they’re going to try to beat us at our own game. They play a very similar style to us. We’re going to have to play similar to the way we did tonight and maybe make a few more shorts than we made tonight.
“They’re good. If we’re going to beat them, we’re going to have to play well.”
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Bemidji 82, North St. Paul 43
NSP 17 26 -- 43
BHS 43 39 -- 82
Bemidji scorers -- Beard 13, Hildenbrand 13, Mills 12, Nicklason 10, M. Flatness 9, Cermak 5, Edlund 5, T. Wade 3, Huberty 2.
North St. Paul scorers -- McKane 12, Sloan 8, Young 7, Stone 6, Pfeffrle 6, Anderson 2, Hogan 2.
