Previews: Beach and North Border
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We are in the first week of practices for Class B basketball, it is a great time of year for hoops fans! In this article, PHD is bringing you Team Previews on the Beach Buccaneers and the North Border Eagles.…
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Continue ReadingWe are in the first week of practices for Class B basketball, it is a great time of year for hoops fans!
In this article, PHD is bringing you Team Previews on the Beach Buccaneers and the North Border Eagles.
Best of luck to the Buccaneers & Eagles this season!
Team Info
Team: Beach Buccaneers Class: B Region: 3 District: 5 Head Coach: Ben Baker
Team: North Border Class: B Region: 2 District: 3 Head Coach: Dan Moore
Beach Buccaneers
Q&A with coach Baker
PHD: Could you write a couple sentences summing up last season?
“A bit disappointing – We graduated 4 seniors who will be missed.“
PHD: How did the offseason go for your team/program?
“The off-season went well. We are trying to find who we are and how to play a full game with players who have not had a lot of Varsity experience. We took steps forward over the summer.“
PHD: Who are a few of your top players to look out for?
“ Justus Baker Justus Baker 6'1" | CG Beach | 2025 State ND (2025) is our only returning varsity starter and only player with much varsity playing time. He shoots well and will be fun to watch.“
“Shawn Murphy – Good size, shoots well inside and out.“
PHD: Who are a couple of up-and-comers to look out for?
“Colt Ambo and our freshman class.“
PHD: What style of basketball will your team play?
“With our inexperience we will be focusing on fundamentals.“
PHD: What are a couple of your team goals this year?
“We will be looking forward to having fun competing as well as we can. Hopefully, win a few that we are not necessarily supposed to win.“
PHD: Who are some of the top teams in your Region?
“Bowman- Their experience.“
North Border Eagles
Q&A with coach Moore
PHD: What can you tell us about last season?
“Last year was a very successful year, even though it didn’t end how we had hoped. The Eagles went 19-3 and played a solid schedule beating some high-quality teams along the way. For whatever reason, we haven’t been able to shoot in The Betty the way we have other places and it cost us last year. We executed well and got the looks we wanted, but just couldn’t capitalize. We will miss the seniors that we lost from last year’s team, but we look forward to a young group that we feel will carry the torch that has been passed on from last year’s team.“
PHD: How did the off-season go?
“We had some team camps and summer league in Grand Forks to start to build some cohesiveness with the boys. The football season probably helped them learn to trust each other as much as anything else could have. We will only have 1 senior and 1 junior on the team, and they both are returning starters.“
PHD: Who are your top players to watch?
“ Grayson Ohmann Grayson Ohmann 5'11" | SG North Border | 2024 ND and Grant Cosley Grant Cosley 6'0" | SG North Border | 2025 State ND will be our leaders and will have to use the trust they built during football and carry it over for the young guys joining them on the court. There is no doubt we will take some lumps through the learning curve, but we feel we will compete on a nightly basis and hopefully surprise some people. Brody Berg Brody Berg 5'10" | CG North Border | 2026 State ND and Kade Schafer Kade Schafer 6'0" | SF North Border | 2026 State ND were the only others to get any varsity experience last year, so we will be looking to some of our other sophomores and some talented freshmen to fill out the lineup.“
PHD: Who are some of your up-n-comers?
“ Weston Cosley Weston Cosley 5'11" | SF North Border | 2027 State ND , Kaden Moore Kaden Moore 5'9" | PG North Border | 2027 State ND , and Garret Willits Garret Willits 6'3" | C North Border | 2027 State ND will be pushing for some time as freshmen. They all demonstrated the ability to handle the moment during football and hope that will carry into the basketball season.“
PHD: What style of basketball will you play?
“We won’t be very big, so we will plan on pushing the ball like we have in the past, attacking the rim, and kicking out to our open shooters. There will be some tough teams in our region and they will have good size, so hopefully we can make up for our lack of size with heart and effort.“
PHD: Who do you see as the top teams in your Region?
“North Star, Nelson County, Langdon, and MPCG will all be good teams returning a fair amount of last year’s talent. I think that there should be a lot of parity among the teams and there should be some really good basketball games played within our District and Region. I’m looking forward to the challenge!“