Beulah Beacon Sports
Beulah advances to semis
The Beulah Miners girls’ basketball team had every player on their opening day roster when they took on New England in the first round of the Region 7 tournament. New England didn’t have every player they started with, and missing Ashley Plaggemeyer, a senior post, hurt the team late and may have caused them to lose 74-70. The first quarter was back-and-forth between both teams for the first six minutes of the game. No one led by more than three points. But New England made a small 6-0 run giving themselves a 17-11 lead. Luckily, the Miners cut it back down with a 3-pointer by Nessa Iverson, junior guard.
Miners play strong defense
Sometimes things start out really easy and smooth, like simple addition. Then they get a bit more complicated, like calculus and other advanced math. The Miners had a similar experience in their play-in Region 7 tournament home game with Heart River last week, but won 47-26. The first two minutes of the game were easy for the Miners. They were playing strong defense and shooting well. The Miners forced three turnovers and made two 3-pointers, giving themselves a 10-2 lead.
Brandt can celebrate
Jeremy Brandt’s passion and understanding for the game of basketball can’t be questioned and his coaching record shows that – three state tournament appearances, soon to be a fourth, and a state championship. But Brandt has added another impressive feat to his coaching career. On Jan. 7 Brandt won his 300th basketball game against Bowman County in a rout. The Miners won 76-39 that night and only suffered one more loss over the final two months of the season. But the road to 300 is full of memorable games, not just one.
Season finale goes to Beulah
The first time the Beulah Miners and Hazen Bison met in boys basketball action, the hot team won. Hazen was the hot team – ranked in the state poll and off to an 8-1 start. The Miners were the cold team – falling out of the state poll and 3-4 on the year. The game resembled both teams’ season records, Hazen was near perfect in the game and Beulah struggled, losing 76-56. In the teams’ final regular season meeting the teams were at opposite sides – the Miners were hot and Hazen was cold. Beulah entered last Tuesday’s game on a 12-game winning streak and the Bison entered with a loss that cost them the region tournament’s top seed. The heat kept burning and the Miners walked away from their home court with a 74-67 win. The start of the game was slow with Beulah leading 5-3 halfway through the quarter. Things stayed close until late in the period. The Miners led 12-10 with 11 seconds left in the quarter when Luke Blood, junior post, made a key play.
Keep the wins coming
The Beulah Miners boys’ basketball team moved its winning streak to 12 wins last week, with a road win over Killdeer and home win over Glen Ullin-Hebron. The wins locked Beulah in as the top seed in the Region 7 tournament next week. The week started with a road game against Killdeer. Killdeer has been a dangerous team all year but very inconsistent. They gave New England their first loss of the year but fell to last place Bowman County. So the Miners knew their first Region 7 game of the week wasn’t going to be easy.
