CROWNED: North Star girls knock off Turner to reach 9C championship game, and the Northern C

After leading most of the game by double digits, it seemed like North Star would cruise to the championship game in the District 9C Girls' Basketball Tournament, However, their opponent, Turner, had other plans as they came back to tie the game at 35-35 with just over a minute left in the game.

The Knights gathered themselves in the final minute thanks to the defensive efforts of Jade Wendland and Laynie Sattoriva. Wendland stole the ball from Turner and then made one of two free throws to take the lead. Then with 13 seconds remaining, Sattoriva made two free throws to make it a three-point lead and then stole the ball from Turner to keep them from attempting a game-tying 3-pointer.

Their late-game defensive efforts secured a 40-37 victory for the Knights Thursday afternoon at the Havre High School Gymnasium. North Star now advances to the championship game to face Fort Benton Saturday. North Star head coach Jennifer Wendland said her team was motivated to hold onto their lead after losing to Turner in this tournament the past two years.

"Our girls just wanted it so bad and they held their composure a heck of a lot more than their coach did," Jennifer Wendland said.

"When we get defensive steals, we can just feed off of it and we can go so much farther," Sattoriva added.

The Knights' defensive effort was strong throughout the game, especially in the first half where they limited the Tornadoes to nine points on 14.8 percent shooting from the field. North Star focused on limiting Turner's Shyan Krass, who scored two points off of 2-for-10 shooting in the first half.

"Shyan's a great player and we knew we had to stop her and so everything was double teamed and aggressive," Jennifer Wendland said.

The Knights built a 17-point lead halfway through the third quarter. The Tornadoes' offense finally woke up as they went on an 18-1 run to tie the game at 31. Emma Billmayer was the driving force during this run, as she scored 10 of her 11 points.

North Star took the lead back at 33-32 with just over five minutes remaining in the game. Both teams struggled over the next three and a half minutes as neither team scored. North Star eventually took the lead before Turner took it right back. North Star then went on a 6-2 run to end the game thanks to their defense down the stretch.

North Star came into the game as the tournament's No. 3 seed and defeated Chinook, 71-52, to open tournament play Tuesday night. Turner was the No. 2 seed and was coming off a 71-31 victory over Chester-Joplin-Inverness Tuesday night.

With the loss, Turner was set to play Hays-Lodge Pole in the consolation semifinals today, but the HLP girls dropped out of the tourney due to COVID-19 concerns (see more below). Despite losing to North Star, Turner head coach Julie Welsh wants her team to stay confident after the way they played.

"We just have to understand how well we played," Welsh said. "If we control the boards, control the tempo and keep from too many turnovers, we'll be alright."

Turner will now play in Saturday's consolation game.

North Star meanwhile, will have to earn it to be crowned 9C champions as they face off with the undefeated and No. 1 seed Fort Benton Longhorns. Fort Benton defeated North Star twice this season already, so Jennifer Wendland looks forward to matching up with them again.

"It should be a good game." Jennifer Wendland said. "They're very well coached, very well rounded, a deep bench team and we just need to come out and play our game."

North Star and Fort Benton will face off for the championship trophy Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at the Havre High Gymnasium. Both teams have also already punched their tickets to next week's Northern C.

For continuing coverage of the 2021 District 9C tournament look for updates from the Havre Daily News all weekend long, and make sure and get a copy of Monday's Hi-Line Sports Roundup for all of the 9C tournament action.

North Star 40, Turner 37, SF

Turner 6 3 18 10 - 37

North Star 11 12 8 9 - 40

Turner - Dakota Krass 6, Emma Billmayer 11, Brandy Grabofsky 0, Brandy Calvert 4, Brooke Reed 5, Shyan Krass 11, Hannah Richman 0.

North Star - Laynie Sattoriva 14, Jade Wendland 14, Kenidee Wolery 4, Shayla Borlaug 0, Mackenzee Sargen 0, Kaytlyn Domire 4, Rainee Watson 4.