PHD Playoff Central: Tuesday (ND)
PHD Playoff Central. The Regional quarterfinals were exciting all over North Dakota highlighted by upsets (talked about below), a double overtime South Border win 60-55 over Ellendale, Edgeley sliding by Napoleon, and Des Lacs-Burlington beating Drake-Anamoose. Tonight the games get ever better.
The Big Stage. The semi-finals this evening at Scheel’s Arena, Jamestown Civic Center, and Devils Lake High School are all top notch double headers that would be an excellent night of entertainment for any fans in the area.
Region 1. Northern Cass/Hankinson and Oak Grove/Enderlin are the contests with Northern Cass being the top seed and Oak Grove being the upstart ten seed that is playing their best basketball of the season.
Region 3. Two of the top players in the state go at it when Brody Nieuwsma leads Strasburg/Zeeland against Hunter Pinke and South Border. In the top half Connor Entzi and his Edgeley-KM squad faces Linton/HMB.
Region 4. Dunseith’s pair Landyn Keplin and Trace Azure led their team against North Star while St. John tries to take out Four Winds. We went into deeper detail below in Player to Watch as St. John tries to pull the upset.
Upset City. New England and Hettinger/Scranton had similar records coming into yesterday’s game but the Night Hawks were the favorite and expected to win especially since they won the last game by 23 points but the Tigers were victorious last night by two scores. Senior wing Brady Bender knocked out 37 points in a memorable performance.
Oak Grove is still two games under .500 but they’ve won two games in a row including a recent win over Central Cass and now they have defeated 16 win Milnor/North Sargent by double figures. Oak Gove lost the last game by nine points but a 20 point turn around has them moving into the next round.
Player to Watch. Dalton Poitra and Seth Vivier have pushed the St. John Woodchucks and the reward for their 19-3 season is a date with Four Winds/Minnewaukan, the number one team in state. Poitra is a massive number producing senior and may be just the guy to lead an upset over the Indians, which is something only Dickinson Trinity was able to do. Four Winds hasn’t lost since that December 28th defeat.
Hat Tip to the Career. Hayden Sadowsky of Hettinger/Scranton was all state last year but this year his season ended much earlier than he would have liked as New England knocked his team out of the playoff run with a four point upset. Sadowsky had many memorable nights for Night Hawks and now is focus will be figuring out where he will play his college basketball.