The Daily News

When the Wahpeton Huskies and the Bismarck Demons meet Thursday in the opening round of the North Dakota State 'A' boys basketball tournament, there will be a sense of familiarity, mixed with some irony.

In 2008, the two teams met in the first round of the State tournament when the Huskies got in as the No. 4 seed out of the East Region.

They faced the eventual state champion Demons, who were the No. 1 seed from the West Region.

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This year, the Huskies (18-4) are the East Region champions and No. 1 seed. The Demons (13-9) are now a No. 4 seed from the West.

"They lost a lot of players off of last year's team," Huskies head coach Jeff Ralph said at a recent practice. "Esley Thornton is back for them. He's a junior. And they got a transfer student, Jalen Finley, who is their leading scorer."

Bismarck beat Wahpeton in the 2008 State tournament after the Huskies lost a big lead.

Trailing the Huskies by 13 points at the half, the Demons came back to win that opening round match up.

"We remember that game and the one in 2005," coach Ralph said. "Last year we felt we had to play great basketball and hope for a break to win. This year we feel that if we just play our game we'll be alright. Bismarck plays good defense. They always do. For us, I think attacking the basket is going to be the key."

Ralph says the break the Huskies have had since their last game on Saturday was helpful, and that the team is coming into the State tournament as healthy as can be expected this far into the season.

"We really needed the time off," Ralph said. "When we came in on Monday, the players were beat."

After winning the East Region tournament on Saturday at the Bison Sports Arena, the Huskies are ready for the next level of competition.

"Jordan and Bryant saw significant minutes in last year's State Tournament," coach Ralph said. "I think, as a team, we have a quiet confidence going into the tournament this year."

With their success last week at the East Region in Fargo, the Huskies are prepared to go back to Fargo, this time to the Fargodome and see if they can face a familiar tournament opponent.

This time with a different result.

Comments

wops fan wrote on Mar 19, 2009 11:46 AM:

" Phillip,

Its hard to score when you have both your hands around your own throat, they lost to Breck, so they weren't really that good anyway. "




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Phillip wrote on Mar 12, 2009 5:27 PM:

" I applaud this team on an outstanding season, but they really need to learn how to close out a game. This game was almost exactly like the EDC championship game. In that game the Huskies were outscored in the last 4 minutes 17-5 I believe, and today in the last 4 minutes of play the Huskies were outscored 14-4. They had a 5 point lead with about 5 minutes to play and were down by a point with 4 minutes to go. It was a sad ending, but again I must say congratulations on a fantastic season. "




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