Wolves win streak snapped
Titus Stenberg
Farmer Sports Writer
Killdeer 73, Watford City 39
Watford City traveled to No. 5 Killdeer for their final Region 4 game of the season on Friday night. The Cowboys snapped the Wolves winning streak with a 73-39 victory. It was senior night in Killdeer as they honored the 10 senior players on their roster before the game started. Despite the high number of seniors on Killdeer’s roster, they were led in scoring by junior Jaxon Reese who scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Watford City held a brief 3-2 early lead, but their offense hit a slump for the rest of the first quarter. Early scoring had been a strength for the Wolves in their last three games, but they were unable to continue that trend, largely due to turnovers. “Killdeer brings a lot of on-ball and trapping pressure,” said Watford City head coach, David Gumke. “We wanted to move the ball quickly to avoid their traps. We talked about pass fakes to set up our passes, but felt like we just threw the ball without that pass fake to set the pass up. We were very careless with the ball. Our guys just needed to calm down and slow down and be a little more patient. Killdeer’s defense was some of the cause of our turnovers, but we were the cause ourselves by being careless with the ball and not setting up our passes.”
Watford City committed 27 turnovers that led to 23 Killdeer points. Killdeer won most statistical categories except for rebounds, which Watford City won 35-30. Dominic Latray led the Wolves with 11 rebounds and three assists. Another bright spot for the Wolves was the shooting of sophomore Carter Breitbach. He made four 3-pointers and four free throws to lead Watford City with 16 points.
“Our half-court trap into our zone defense was not too bad,” said Coach Gumke. “It was helpful in slowing them down. Our problem was in taking so long to make an adjustment to have two back at safety. Our guys have been aggressive the last three games at crashing the boards from the perimeter. We had a hard time getting them to not do that from the top. We did not shoot the ball well like we had the past three games. That led to a lot of one-and-done on offense and us playing more defense which will eventually break down with the way that they attack the basket. Killdeer is a very good team, so we have to play good basketball in all phases of the game for four quarters to give ourselves the opportunity for a win.”
Watford City’s record moved to 3-17 overall and 0-6 in Region 4. The Wolves have one game remaining on their regular season schedule and then will host the Division A Region 4 Boys Basketball Tournament at the Rough Rider Center presented by Northern States Fishing Tools. That tournament will be played on March 10, 11 and 13.
1 2 3 4 Final
Killdeer 13 22 19 19 73
Watford City 5 17 11 6 39
Watford City scoring: Carter Breitbach, 16; Trysten DeVries, 8; Dominic Latray, 8; Thaydan Arnold, 4; Xavier McGorman, 3
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