5-PEAT! Bruins win East Region in overtime thriller

Fargo South extended their streak of winning the East Region Tournament to 5 years in a row with a dramatic 62-59 overtime thriller over crosstown rival Fargo North on Saturday night in the Alerus Center in Grand Forks. In a game where everyone should have gotten their moneys worth, there were 11 lead changes and 8 ties in a game that featured huge plays from both sides all night long, capped by a big freethrow from Sara Rydell who was thrust into the pressure cooker of the waning seconds of the game after sitting for the entire game as a reserve. Early on it was North with the hot hand, as they jumped out to a 9-2 lead four minutes in. But the Bruins were not about to panic with a team full of veterans who have been through championship games before. The Bruins whittled away at the lead, eventually taking their first lead of the game at 15-13 on a Katie Felch driving layup in traffic with just over 8 minutes left. As the teams battled back and forth the rest of the half, the Bruins big plays included a Siri Burck three pointer and a nice reverse layup by Raquel Wellentin, who was hampered by foul trouble almost the whole first half. South trailed 25-23 late in the half, but scored the last 5 points of the half on an Alley Fisher three pointer and a Siri Burck bucket to take a 28-25 halftime lead. The second half though is where things got very tense. Neither team could pull away from each other, as both teams continually made big baskets when they needed to. Meghan Roehrich again dropped in a couple of NBA length bombs, the second one giving the Bruins their biggest lead of the night at 45-38. But that was answered shortly after by an Alyssa Dehne three pointer, making it a 46-45 Bruin lead with 7 minutes to play. North then appeared to take control of the game as Alyssa Wixo hit a big three pointer to give the Spartans a 49-46 lead with 3 minutes left and followed that up with an Angie Waller basket inside, giving North a 51-46 lead with just over 2 minutes to play. But again, the experience of the Bruins came through. Meghan Roehrich drove through the lane to hit a tough shot making it 51-48, and then after Siri Burck grabbed a defensive rebound, Meghan was fouled on a fast break layup. After making the first to cut it to 51-49, Meghan missed the second and then fouled out on the ensuing scramble for the rebound with just under a minute to play. South showed why they are not a one girl show though. Senior Siri Burck stepped up to the challenge, grabbing another defensive rebound, with 30 seconds left, brought the ball up against the pressure of the North defense, the large crowd, and the pressure of the situation, and calmly drove to the basket and found Raquel Wellentin on a great pass in the lane for the clutch tying basket with 3 seconds left. North's Alyssa Dehne heaved up a 50 footer at the buzzer that was halfway down before rattling out, sending the game into overtime. In the overtime, the Bruins took control early. Katie Felch hit a long two pointer to give South a 53-51 lead, but Angie Waller scored inside to tie it up at 53-53. Then Siri took over the offense, hitting back to back inside shots including a beautiful reverse layup to give the Bruins a 57-53 lead with under 2 minutes left. The Bruins furthered that lead as Alley Fisher hit a freethrow and Katie Felch hit a pair of freethrows to give the Bruins what appeared to be a comfortable 60-54 lead with just 36 seconds left. But it was not going to be easy. Alyssa Dehne drove the lane and was fouled for a three point play to make it 60-57 with 25 seconds left, and then the Bruins turned the ball over and fouled in the process, allowing the Spartans to make a pair of freethows to cut it to 60-59 with 21 seconds left. And almost unbelievably, the Bruins again turned the ball over on a jump ball call, and with 14 seconds left, the Spartans had a chance to win the game. But this time the Bruin defense forced a turnover and Alley Fisher was fouled with under 10 secondsleft. Alley made her first freethrow, making it 61-59 but missed the second. But on the play Alley back tapped her own miss out to Siri Burck who was fouled with 3 seconds left, but was injured in the process, forcing the Bruins to substitute for the ensuing freethrow attempts. Thats when Sara Rydell went from fan on the bench to having to make the most pressure packed freethow she's ever attempted in the span of about 20 seconds. And even though the first attempt was missed, the second was made, giving South a three point lead at 62-59 and the Spartans were forced to scramble up a shot that missed, and the Bruins came away with the very entertaining championship win in a total team effort where everyone who played stepped up and made an important play somewhere along the line. Meghan Roehrich led all scorers again with 24 points. Alley Fisher also hit dobule figures with 12 points, while Siri Burck pulled down 14 big rebounds as the Bruins owned the defensive glass in the overtime period, Siri's second straight double figure rebounding night. South will take the #1 seed into next week's state tournament with a 19-3 record. After the game, Siri, Meghan, and Alley were all named to the All-Conference team, and Siri was named Senior Player of the Year.

play by play of the game
complete boxscore

Boxscore:
Fargo South: Roehrich 8 5-6 24, Burck 4 0-1 9, Fisher 3 4-6 12, Wellentin 2 0-1 4, Moffett 2 1-4 5, Felch 2 3-4 7, Rydell 0 1-2 1; Totals 21 14-23 62, Three point goals: Roehrich 3, Fisher 2, Burck

Fargo North: Dehne 3 6-7 13, Wixo 2 2-4 8, Larson 1 0-0 2, Teschendorf 2 0-0 4, Waller 4 5-6 13, Reinholz 5 0-0 10, Lopez 2 1-2 5, Scherer 1 0-0 2, Skunberg 1 0-0 2; Totals: 20 14-19 59, Three point goals: Wixo 2, Dehne

Fouled out: Roehrich, Teschendorf, Waller; Total Fouls: South 14, FN 21; Rebounds: South 31(Burck 14), FN 31(Waller 8); Assists: South 10(Burck 8), FN 15(Dehne 7), Steals: South 8(Roehrich 3), FN 8(Wixo 5); Turnovers: South 17, FN 19