Lady Braves Win Opener

The Britton-Hecla girls basketball team split a pair of games in its first week of the 2023-24 campaign.

Coach Terry Nelson’s crew downed Tiospa Zina 51-46 in its opener on Friday and fell to Northwestern 54-47 the home opener on Monday. This week the Lady Braves host Webster Area on Friday in a doubleheader with the boys’ squad.

Northwestern 54 Britton-Hecla 47

Northwestern came up with a 9-0 run in the opening period to erase an 8-2 deficit and never trailed again, but the Lady Braves came up with a couple runs of their own to keep the game close.

“Northwestern had about the exact same team from last year when they kicked us by 17, so we’ve improved a whole bunch,” said Nelson. “We had our chances and fought back. I like our aggressiveness and we just have to keep slowly getting better.”

The Lady Braves tied the game at 20-all with 3:09 left in the second period on hoops from Sterling Brassfield and a follow shot from Tiyanna Schott, but a trey and fielder gave the Wildcats a 25-20 halftime margin.

Brassfield, who led B-H scorers with 18, put a pair of rebounds back up for two to cut the margin to 27-26 at the 3:35 mark of the third quarter but Northwestern countered with a 10-0 run for its biggest lead of 11 points and led 39-30 with a quarter to play.

The visitors still led by nine with just over two minutes remaining but the Lady Braves made it interesting. Addison Wade hit from the corner and Jayden Bender canned a trey to quickly cut the lead to four, and with 34 seconds left a Brassfield free toss made it to one-possession game at 5047. But the Wildcats hit a pair of buckets down the stretch to put the game away.

Schott added 12 points and Bender nine for the Lady Braves. Brassfield and Bender both grabbed 10 rebounds and Schott had eight. Bender also came up with three steals.

NORTHWESTERN: Breelyn Sattler 1 0-0 3, Ella Boekelheide 1 1-2 4, Tara Blachford 5 0-0 11, Josie Sparling 1 0-0 2, Ashley Haven 7 0-0 15, Adriana Ratigan 9 1-3 19. Totals 24-66 2-5 54.

BRITTON-HECLA: Sterling Brassfield 8 2-2 18, Tiyanna Schott 5 26 12, Jayden Bender 2 4-10 9, Addison Wade 3 0-0 6, Heather Storbakken 0 2-2 2. Totals 18-42 10-20 47.

NW (1-0) 13 25 39 54 BH (1-1) 9 20 30 47

3-point goals - Sattler, Boekelheide, Blachford, Haven; Bender. Total fouls – NW 17; BH 10.

Britton-Hecla 51 Tiospa Zina 46

Britton-Hecla extended a three-point halftime lead to seven after three periods and held on for the win.

Tiyanna Schott laced 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and Sterling Brassfield added 15 counters for the Lady Braves. B-H outrebounded the Wambdi 53-10, led by Jayden Bender’s 19.

“We got behind and put the press on and I saw a little feistiness from the girls,” said Nelson. “They were diving on the floor and getting balls. I think the press was the difference, along with our rebounding. We had 31 points at halftime and averaged just 27 points per game a year ago.”

BRITTON-HECLA: Sterling Brassfield 5 5-8 15, Tiyanna Schott 8 2-6 18, Jayden Bender 1 3-6 5, Addison Wade 0 0-2 0, Heather Storbakken 3 00 6, RaeAnn Hagenson 2 0-0 4, Karlie Zuehlke 0 1-4 1, Mallory Grupe 1 0-0 2. Totals 20 11-26 51.

TIOSPA ZINA: Jaia Bursheim 7 618 20, Latice Rodlund 3 2-4 11, Maya Deutsch 2 0-2 5, Hannah Ziegler 2 2-2 6, Gerrica Redday 0 1-3 1. Totals 15 12-23 46.

BH (1-0) 18 31 44 51 TZ (0-1) 17 28 37 46

3-point goals - Rodlund 3, Deutsch. Total fouls – BH 19, TZ 17.