The Wahpeton Huskies earned a regular-season sweep of the Devils Lake Firebirds with a 57-45 home win Saturday. Wahpeton used a 21-9 first quarter to build a 29-25 halftime lead, and never trailed in the contest.
Senior guard Brayden Steffens led the Huskies with 21 points on 6-of-12 shooting, knocking down half of his eight 3-point attempts. Sophomore guard Jack Gilbertson added 11 points, five rebounds and a game-high seven assists.
The post duo of Treyton King and Alex Comings continued to dominate the glass. King closed with six points and eight rebounds, while Comings supplied four points and a game-high 12 boards — five of them coming on the offensive end.
Aiden Bontjes chipped in eight points and two assists.
The Firebirds were paced by Ben Brodina’s game-high 27 points. With key players unavailable for Devils Lake, Brodina shouldered a heavy load, shooting 10 of 27 from the field 3 of 15 from three-point range. He added a team-high eight rebounds.
Bryar Exner was also in double-figures with 12 points and six rebounds.
The Huskies narrowly won the rebounding battle, 32-31. Wahpeton committed nine turnovers compared to a dozen for Devils Lake. The Huskies collected 18 second-chance points compared to nine for the visitors.
Wahpeton (11-4, 4-3 Region 1) hosts Oak Grove (9-6, 6-2 Region 1) on Monday night with playoff seeding implications looming large for the upcoming region tournament. Listen to the 7:30 p.m. game on AM 1450 KBMW or kbmwnews.com.