FOSSTON DEFEATS FERTILE-BELTRAMI GIRL’S BASKETBALL THANKS TO 14-0 SECOND HALF RUN

The Fertile-Beltrami Falcons and Fosston Greyhounds Girl’s Basketball teams met at Ralph Engelstad Arena on Saturday afternoon in the Section 8A Tournament Quarterfinals. The teams were tied at halftime, but Fosston used a 14-0 second-half run to build a big lead, and the Falcons comeback attempt came up short in a 43-35 Fosston win, ending Fertile-Beltrami’s season.

FIRST HALF –
Both teams knew a quick start was going to be crucial, and it was Fosston getting out to an 8-2 lead thanks to a couple of three-pointers from Kinsley Duppong. Fertile-Beltrami would overcome the slow start and go on an 11-3 run to take a 13-11 lead with around eight minutes remaining in the half. Highlighting the run was a Kasia Wilson three, a Tori Erickson and one, free throws from Josie Iverson, as well as a three from senior Maren Sather. The lead changed a couple of more times in the first half, and after Fosston led 16-14, the Falcons would score six of the final ten points to tie the game at 20-20 going into the halftime break. The defenses for both teams were doing a great job of keeping each other out of the lane and forcing long possessions which made for a low-scoring game. Fertile-Beltrami got a balanced effort in the first eighteen minutes with six different players scoring, and junior Tori Erickson led the way with 8. Fosston had two main contributors as seniors Katelyn Vesledahl and Kinsley Duppong had 8 points each.

SECOND HALF –
Josie Iverson would hit an early free throw to start the second half, but Fosston would explode and knock down three straight three-pointers on a 10-0 run to take a 30-21 lead and force a Fertile-Beltrami timeout with 14:04 left in the game. It was the biggest lead for either team up to this point. Fosston would score the next four points as well to take a 34-21 lead, and it took a total of eight minutes before the Falcons finally got back on the scoreboard on a Brooklyn Strem three to make it 34-24 Fosston with 9:15 remaining. The Greyhounds tried to melt the clock with the big lead, but it backfired and their offense started to stall out. Fertile-Beltrami found themselves down 36-24, but the Falcons would catch fire and hit three straight three-pointers and go on an 11-0 run to cut the Fosston lead down to 36-35. Senior Brooklyn Strem hit two of the three-pointers for the Falcons and senior Josie Iverson score the other five points during the run. Fosston would draw a foul on their next offensive possession and hit both free throws to pull ahead 38-35 with just 3:25 remaining. The Falcons would come up empty on their next possession, and Fosston would take more time of the clock before an and one from Katelyn Vesledahl extended their lead to 41-35 with 2:12 remaining. It seemed as if the Falcons ran out of gas, and after another miss, Fosston would get a wide-open layup to go ahead 43-35. Fertile-Beltrami wouldn’t score the rest of the game and elected not to foul in the final thirty seconds, and Fosston would hang on to win the game 43-35.

Fertile-Beltrami finishes their season with a final record of 21-7. They will lose seven seniors from the team as Josie Iverson, Brooklyn Strem, Kimberly Hitchen, Isabelle Dahl, Zoe Messick, Maren Sather, and Kasia Wilson will all graduate this spring. Fosston improves to 23-3 and will now play in the Section 8A East Sub-Section Championship on Tuesday night.

FOR FALCONS COACH KELLY STENE’S COMMENTS, CLICK BELOW

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