Fertile-Beltrami Girls Basketball holds off Climax-Fisher in defensive battle

The Fertile-Beltrami Falcon Girls basketball team needed all the defense they could muster, and it paid off as they held off the Climax-Fisher Knights by a score of 57-49 in Fertile on Friday night.

FIRST HALF –
The first half was controlled by the Knights, as they opened up the game on an 8-1 run, getting buckets from Lucy Paulsrud and Peyton Hoffman. After about 5 minutes of game time, the Falcon offense began to step up, and they closed the gap to 4 at 13-9. Then, at 15-11 Knights, the Falcons took the lead off of a 3-pointer from Madison Stueness and a breakaway layup from Bailey Iverson. From there, the lead changed back-and-forth, with no one getting a larger lead than 3. Peyton Hoffman continued to score at will, recording 14 of the Knights 25 points in the half. Her final two free throws gave the Knights a 25-22 lead, but Stueness responded by scoring twice in the final 40 seconds, and that gave the Falcons a miniscule 26-25 lead at the break.

SECOND HALF –
After one 3-pointer in the first half, both teams hit one in the first 30 seconds of the second half, bringing the score to 29-28 Falcons. The Falcons began to run a trap defense, and were forcing more turnovers and getting more breakaways. This resulted in back-to-back transition buckets to put the Falcons up 5. However, as was the case for the majority of the game, the Knights had an answer, as Paulsrud and Peyton Hoffman led a 14-6 run, ending with the Knights taking a 42-39 lead with 8:31 to go in the half. The momentum seemed to be on the Knights’ side, but unfortunately for them, the final minutes of the game was when the Falcons played their best basketball. After the Falcons retook the lead at 46-44, Tessa Opdahl hit a huge 3-pointer to put the Falcons up 5 again, and they would not look back. They ended the game on an 18-5 run, forcing 14 turnovers in the second half, and that resulted in a 57-49 victory for the Falcons.

Fertile-Beltrami improves to 6-2 on the season, while Climax-Fisher drops to 4-5.