Blue Jays three short of 100 points against Watford Saturday

Jan. 14—JAMESTOWN — There wasn't anything that special about the Jamestown High School girls basketball game on Saturday.

In head coach Andy Skunberg's words:

"We played hard. We came out aggressive and that's what we planned on doing. We hit some shots which always helps and overall it was just a good team game."

Skunberg's crew cruised to a 97-44 win over Watford City to improve to 5-3 in the West Region and 6-3 overall. The win over the Wolves pushed the Jays' win streak to four straight games. The team's ninth conference game of the season is scheduled for Tuesday against St. Mary's. First tip is slated for 7 p.m. at Jerry Meyer Arena.

Coming into the matchup against the 0-7 Wolves, it had been a good week of practices for the Blue Jays.

"We just worked on some of the little things that we were struggling with like some ball-handling and the fundamentals," Skunberg said. "When we have that time off — we like to work on those things — because we don't get that chance very much throughout the year with game-planning and all that kind of stuff so when we have a few days off, it can be good for us."

Based on the Jays' performance on Saturday, it certainly seemed as though those three days of uninterrupted practice aided the Jays' production.

Eight fouls by the Wolves gave the Jays plenty of scoring opportunities and the Blue Jays capitalized on them, establishing a 48-6 lead. The Jays' 15-point-plus scoring run spanned more than nine minutes. Watford's leading scorer, Jessica Mogen. snapped the Wolves' scoring drought, draining a pair of free throws to make it 48-8 Blue Jays but the momentum quickly swung back to the game leaders.

The crew collected on another Watford City foul to make it 50-8 with just over three minutes to play in the first. All told the Wolves tabulated nine fouls in the opening half and the Jays' managed to go 8-of-11 from the stripe.

Ella Falk was the Jays' leading scorer with 20 points while Breanna Oettle ended with 14. Teagan Bosche drained two 3s en route to 12 total points while Rylee Joseph and Haylie Hakanson each put nine points on the books.

The Wolves found a bit of a scoring rhythm in the final three minutes but while they managed to rattle off eight, Jamestown remained squarely in control and went into the break, up by 42 points.

Audrey Fowler kicked off second-half scoring with a deep 3-pointer to make it 58-19 but Oettle answered with her second 3-point shot to put the Jays back up by 42.

The back half of the second half, Skunberg benched his starters in an effort to give his non-starters some varsity reps. Sophomore Edie Hegerle went on to score five points while Peyton Waliser sank a couple of 3s to give her six. Haley Attleson drained a couple of buckets for four points and Emily Ellingson made what was probably the most hyped-up bucket of her career.

"Our girls like to cheer everybody on and (Ellingson) is one of those who works hard every day in practice and to see her get the chance to score in a varsity game is pretty special for all of the girls," Skunberg said. "It was good to see it for her and it gives the girls an opportunity to cheer on their teammates."

Ellingson totaled two points.

"Everyone got in the scoring book tonight so there was some pretty unselfish play," Skunberg said. "That's what we like to see."

Jamestown 97, Watford City 44

WC 16 28 — 44

JHS 58 39 — 97

WC — Jessica Mogen 19, Adilyn Schaff 10, Jordyn Pedersen 6, Kenzy Kuchenbuch 4, Audrey Fowler 3, Bailey Mattson 2. Totals: 18 FG, 6-15 FT, 12 fouls. 3-pointers: Mogen 1, Fowler 1.

JHS — Ella Falk 20, Breanna Oettle 14, Teagan Bosche 12, Haylie Hakanson 9, Rylee Joseph 9, Katie Falk 7, Leah Trumbauer 7, Peyton Waliser 6, Edie Hegerle 5, Jada Walter 4, Emily Ellingson 2, Haley Attleson 2. Totals: 39 FG, 9-12 FT, 9 fouls. 3-pointers: Oettle 3, Bosche 2, Waliser 2, Trumbauer 1, Hegerle 1, Joseph 1.