FARGO - The Class A all-stars found themselves down at halftime and in jeopardy of getting swept by Class B.
Class A rallied in the second half to make sure the 36th annual North Dakota Lions All-Star girls basketball series would be a split.
Bismarck Century's Tessa Delzer scored 20 points to lead Class A to a 90-84 win over Class B in the second game of the series on Wednesday at the Fargo Civic Center.
Class A had all the momentum early and led 26-19 with 7 minutes, 18 seconds left in the first half. Class B put together a 13-0 run and outscored the A all-stars 28-11 the rest of the half. Class B led 47-37 at halftime.
"It was kind of like last night, with them getting the lead and us having to come back," Class A coach Ron Metz said. "We had a nice lead there early in the first half, but we just had a few bad things go wrong. We got rebuilt over halftime and the girls came out and put a lot of things together."
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Class A opened the first half with a 9-1 run to pull within two points of the lead. The A all-stars got to within two points several times, but didn't tie the game until Fargo Shanley's Rachel Weir converted a layup with 9:32 left in regulation.
On Class A's next possession, Wahpeton's Tawny Irwin staked her team to a 68-65 lead sinking a 3-pointer with 9:05 left.
"Our mindset was to just play our game in the second half," said Weir, who is committed to playing basketball at the University of Mary. "We knew we could win. In the second half, we were working off of our defense. A couple people just worked hard, which fired up our offense to move through and hit the open person."
Delzer was 4-for-4 from beyond the arc and followed Irwin's 3-pointer with one of her own.
"Having played for me at Century, she is such a great defender," Metz said of Delzer who helped the Patriots with the Class A state championship. "Any offense we got out of her was a bonus, but I got to talk to her about why she didn't hit 3-pointers like that for us this year. She nailed key ones for us when we needed them and huge for us tonight."
Weir finished with 11 points as did Devils Lake's Sarah Schafer. Williston's Dani Clarke scored 13 for Class A.
Beach's Kelcee Dykins paced the Class B all-stars with 22 points. Brandy Messner of Dakota Prairie scored 13 and Central Cass standout Courtney Dixon scored 10, including two 3-pointers.
Class B committed 18 turnovers in the first half and finished with 26.
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"Last night was a game of runs, too," Class B head coach Laurie Sieben said. "Sometimes it is all about timing. They just made their runs at the right time tonight."
Class A leads the all-time Lions All-Star girls basketball series 36-25.
CLASS A: Longtin 0 0-0 0, Burt 0 0-0 0, Delzer 4 8-8 20, Diederich 2 1-2 5, Clarke 3 5-7 13, Jeske 1 2-2 5, Schafer 5 0-1 11, Krogh 2 0-0 4, Irwin 2 3-4 8, Knecht 2 1-2 5, Weir 5 1-2 11, Moffett 3 2-3 8. Totals 29-65 23-31 90.
CLASS B: Thompson 2 1-2 6, Mehus 0 0-0 0, Scherr 2 1-2 6, Dykins 8 4-7 22, Rosenau 0 6-10 6, Gaustad 2 4-5 8, Johnson 0 7-10, 7, Allex 1 0-0 2, Dixon 3 2-2 10, Messner 4 5-7 13, Sletten 0 2-4 2, Grinsteinner 1 0-0 2. Totals 23-57 32-49 84.
Halftime: Class B 47, Class A 37
3-pointers: Thompson, Scherr, Dykins 2, Dixon 2, Delzer 4, Clarke 2, Jeske, Schafer, Irwin. Total fouls: Class A 31, Class B 22. Fouled out: Longtin, Schafer. Rebounds: Class A 36 (Knecht 8), Class B 49 (Johnson 9). Assists: Class A 21 (Longtin, Clarke, Jeske 4), Class B 18 (Rosenau 6). Turnovers: Class A 16, Class B 26.
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Tom Mix at (701) 451-5651
