FARGO — The Bismarck Century boys basketball team proved Thursday why it’s one of the best shooting teams in North Dakota.
It only took 18 minutes for the West Region’s top-seeded Patriots to be well in control of its Class A state tournament quarterfinal matchup with East Region fourth-seed Fargo Shanley, using a 56 percent shooting clinic in the first half to ultimately top the Deacons 77-45 at the Fargodome.
Century (25-0) advanced to Friday’s semifinals against East Region second-seed Fargo North (17-8) at 8:30 p.m. at Sanford Health Athletic Complex.
The Patriots took a commanding 45-16 lead at halftime, with Isaiah Schafer scoring all of his 17 points in the first half. Schafer hit 5-of-7 from 3-point range in the half.
“I’ve got good teammates who find me the ball at the right time,” Schafer said. “All credit to them.”
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Solid defense translated into solid offense, Century head coach Darin Mattern said.
“We kind of base our game on team defense,” Mattern said. “Team defense and rebounding. We say all the time, ‘Defense travels.’ And if you guard and you rebound, you’re going to have a chance. To hold a team to 16 (first-half points) in an environment like this is a pretty impressive feat.
“Then obviously, we made some shots. Schafer got hot a little bit and then we spread them out a little bit and started going inside out. We have a lot of willing passers on this team, and when you have that and you have five or six guys who can score in double figures, obviously that makes it a little bit more difficult to guard.”
Four other Patriots joined Schafer in double digits, including William Ware with 13 points and Ryan Erikson, Tyler Birst and Anthony Doppler all with 12.
Shanley (15-11) will play in the consolation semifinals against West Region third-seed Bismarck Legacy (14-11) at 2 p.m. Friday at the Fargodome.
Shanley head coach Craig Irwin said Century was able to take away the paint, which was key since the Deacons' game plan was to get the ball inside.
“We really thought confidently that we could go out and get the ball inside and make things happen,” Irwin said. “I give (Century) a lot of credit, they just popped us one right in the nose to get this thing started. They put so much pressure on the guards, we couldn’t make post entries. When we did get it inside, they made it tough for our post to operate.”
Vuciri Hakim paced the Deacons with 22 points. Conner Kraft followed it up with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds. Kaden Christmann added eight points.
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Century finished the game shooting 29-of-60 (48 percent). Shanley was 20-of-55 (36 percent).
Century won the board battle, collecting 34 rebounds to Shanley’s 22. Joel Edland picked up 7 rebounds while Kraft led the Deacons with his 10.
Halftime: Bismarck Century 45, Fargo Shanley 16
FS: Hakim 22, Kraft 10, Christmann 8, Wheelock 5.
BC: Schafer 17, Ware 13, Erikson 12, T. Birst 12, Doppler 12, Kempel 5, Edland 2, Lill 2, Jensen 1, Berger 1.
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