Barnesville tops in 6A

By Jeff Kolpack

March 11, 2004 at 11:00 PM

At 23 years old, barely removed from being a college student, Barnesville head girls basketball coach Trevor Schneeberger was watching what takes some coaches years to do: seeing his team cutting down the nets.

The Trojans were celebrating a 33-27 victory over Ulen-Hitterdal, which gave them the Class 1A, Section 6 West championship Thursday night at Concordia.

Barnesville will take on Cass Lake-Bena at 7 tonight at Concordia for the right to go to the state tournament.

"It's an unbelievable feeling," Schneenberger said. "The thing these girls did every day, poise and intensity and all the hard work, paid off. It's fun to see."

Hard work in this case came in the form of defense. The Trojans limited the Spartans to 26 percent shooting in a game where points became precious.

Kim Lewis' inside basket broke a 16-16 tie midway in the third quarter and Barnesville never trailed. Erica Nord's 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter gave the Trojans a six-point lead. The margin would never get bigger than that but never smaller than four points.

"Defense is what got us here and we told them it would be no different come tournament time," Schneeberger said.

The Spartans' night was typified in the final the minute. They missed five shots in 25 seconds in trying to cut into a 31-25 deficit.

"And we're a very good shooting team," said Ulen-Hitterdal head coach Jeff Schultz. "We just had an off night."

The off night ended the farthest point a Ulen-Hitterdal team has ever gone. They did it with only one senior.

Freshman Lindsey Schultz led the Spartans with 13 points.

"We had a great year," Jeff Schultz said. "We'll be back."

Lewis had 15 points despite being double teamed most of the game.

U-H 5 9 18 27

Barnesville 6 12 23 33

U-H: M. Johnson 0 0-0 0, Schultz 5 1-3 13, Austinson 1-2 1-2 3, B. Johnson 1 0-1 2, Anderson 3 1-2 7, M. Green 1 0-0 2, A. Green 0 0-0 0. Totals: 11 3-8.

BARNESVILLE: N. Nord 2 0-1 4, Peterson 1 1-2 3, Lewis 6 3-7 15, E. Nord 2 3-8 8, Johnson 1 0-0 3, Herbranson 0 0-0 0, Aakre 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 7-18.

3-point goals: Schultz 2, E. Nord, Johnson. Total fouls: U-H 13, Barnesville 10. Rebounds: U-H 30, Barnesville 33. Assists: U-H 8, Barnesville 10. Turnovers: U-H 12, Barnesville 14.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546

By Jeff Kolpack

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.