High School Basketball season now underway

The PRCDHS winter sports season kicked off last Saturday with Broadus hosting non-conference varsity games against Savage. The late start to the season came about due to MHSA guidelines, which held off competitions until the start of the year, compressing the basketball and wrestling seasons into a shortened timeframe.

The setting Saturday night was a bit understated compared to years past, as COVID-19 restrictions limited the number of fans to five per uniformed player, with six feet of spacing between family groups, as well as facemasks required for all fans. From our observations, fans seemed to do fairly well wearing their masks, though a few "chin diapers" were in effect – that is, fans wearing their masks down over their chin instead of over their nose and mouth.

Perhaps as a result of the masks and distancing, as well as the lack of a student cheering section, fan noise at the game seemed somewhat subdued. The quiet atmosphere led to an interesting phenomenon where the coach's calls and on court commentary could be heard in detail throughout the gym. Viewers of NFL games this season have seen similar scenarios, where the on-field banter could be heard instead of crowd noise. The changes seemed to draw the crowd into the action, making one feel as if you were on the court with the players instead of viewing from the stands.

Here's a breakdown of the games.

Girls

Broadus Head Coach Ashley Emmons takes over the reins of the Lady Hawk team this season, following a 4-year hiatus while she was raising her own children. Emmons began coaching basketball at South Heart, ND, after graduating from Dickinson State University where she played on the DSU Women's Basketball Team. She then moved to Broadus in 2010 with her husband, Patrick Emmons, and worked as an Assistant Girls Basketball Coach, under then Head Coach, Gordon Archer, and helped coach the team to the State tournament. Ashley took over as Head Coach in 2011, where she led the team to a 79-40 record over the next five years, winning the conference title in three of those five years.

Emmons returns to the court with an ambitious team of young ladies. 16 girls are on the high school roster, but no Seniors are on the team. The young squad features 4 Juniors, and the bulk of the team comprised of Sophomores and Freshmen. The 9th graders on the team were coached by Emmons last season, when she worked as a Junior High Coach. Emmons has help coaching this season from Assistant Coach Kristie Lanke and Volunteer Coach Lee Turnbough.

On Saturday, the Lady Hawks hosted Savage. In the past Broadus has not played Savage, but due to the shortened season and paucity of teams (the reservation teams are not competing in winter sports), games had to be found outside the conference.

The Lady Hawks came out slow, with the Savage Lady Warriors going up 10-4 over Broadus after the first quarter. Broadus fought back to within one at the half, going into the locker rooms down 17-18. The score remained close after the third quarter, with Broadus down 28-30. In the fourth quarter, Savage was able to add to their lead, with a final score of Savage 40, Broadus 34.

Emmons told us that her expectations were blown away at the Lady Hawks level of play, and said that the team executed her instructions well throughout the game. Where they came up short, she said, was in boxing out and coming down with rebounds. These were areas which said she had not emphasized in earlier practices, and it was something she would look to improve going on in the season.

Zeason Schaffer led the Lady Hawks with 6 points, while Oliveah Schafer had 5 points.

Full stats from the game will be printed when they are available via Hudl, the school's stat program.

The Lady Hawks are in an extremely challenging district this season. Melstone played in the State semifinals last year, and have several all-state players on their roster as well as tall foreign exchange students coming in to play this season. Ekalaka graduated their dynamic duo Labree twins, but look to remain strong, while Jordan is expected to be a tough opponent this season. The Lady Hawks face all three of those teams this week, with the Jordan game played on Tuesday (after our deadline). Broadus will then travel to Ekalaka on Friday, and host Melstone on Saturday.

Boys

Last year the Broadus Hawk Boys team stunned the district by handing the Melstone Broncs their first loss of the season, at the District Tournament. The Hawks would go on to finish their season at the Divisional Tourney, and looked to continue their success this season.

With 12 players on the roster but half the team out due to injury or violations of the conduct code, the six remaining players would test their cardio ability on the court Saturday against Savage.

Returning Head Coach Mike Richards told us during a Monday interview that his team had a hard time finding their groove against Savage. Broadus shot the ball poorly, and especially so from the free throw line, as Broadus sunk 35% of their shots on the evening. Additionally, Broadus had to defend against Savage's Sloan McPherson, listed at 6' 4" tall and signed to U of M to play football. McPherson guarded the paint with aplomb, racking up three blocks and 26 rebounds against Broadus.

Despite the challenges, Broadus managed to squeak by with a win 42-38, leading through most of the game. The Hawks were led in scoring by Johnny Richards, a Junior who scored 16 points, while Sophomore Marcus Mader had 13 points. Two freshmen saw a lot of playing time against Savage in their first Varsity games – Jaxon Bilbrey had 29 minutes of play along with 3 points and 6 assists, while Landon Capp had 20 minutes of playing time and played a solid game with three rebounds and one blocked shot.

Broadus hosts Jordan this Tuesday.

Richards noted that the full team should be back and ready to play this weekend, as Broadus travels to Ekalaka and hosts Melstone. Richards said that Wibaux was able to eke out a win against Ekalaka last weekend. Melstone is expected to be the team to beat this season in the district.

For those looking to view the games, home games as well as the majority of away games will be broadcast on the NFHS Network. Additionally, Seabeck Pizza has been broadcasting the games via the NFHS Network for those who may not subscribe to the service.

Wrestling will kick off this week, with a mixer on Friday at Forsyth, and Saturday at Baker.