Previews: Beach and North Border

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We are in the first week of practices for Class B basketball, it is a great time of year for hoops fans!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size">In this article, PHD is bringing you Team Previews on the Beach Buccaneers and the North Border Eagles.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"style":{"typography":{"fontSize":"20px","fontStyle":"italic","fontWeight":"800"}}} --> <p style="font-size:20px;font-style:italic;font-weight:800">Best of luck to the Buccaneers &amp; Eagles this season!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">Team Info</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Team:</strong> Beach Buccaneers <strong>Class:</strong> B <strong>Region</strong>: 3 <strong>District: </strong>5<strong> Head Coach:</strong> <em>Ben Baker</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Team:</strong> North Border <strong>Class:</strong> B <strong>Region</strong>: 2 <strong>District: </strong>3<strong> Head Coach:</strong> <em>Dan Moore</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:image {"id":1634111,"width":"427px","height":"auto","sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"media"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><a href="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/10/TeamPreview.jpg"><img src="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/10/TeamPreview.jpg?w=865" alt="" class="wp-image-1634111" style="width:427px;height:auto" /></a></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">Beach Buccaneers</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"small"} --> <p class="has-small-font-size"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">Q&amp;A with coach <em>Baker</em></span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">PHD: Could you write a couple sentences summing up last season?</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em>A bit disappointing - We graduated 4 seniors who will be missed.</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">PHD: How did the offseason go for your team/program?</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em>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.</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">PHD: Who are a few of your top players to look out for?</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2286705' first='Justus' last='Baker']</strong> (2025) is our only returning varsity starter and only player with much varsity playing time. He shoots well and will be fun to watch.</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em><strong>Shawn Murphy </strong>- Good size, shoots well inside and out.</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">PHD: Who are a couple of up-and-comers to look out for?</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em><strong>Colt Ambo</strong> and our freshman class.</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">PHD: What style of basketball will your team play?    </span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em>With our inexperience we will be focusing on fundamentals.</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">PHD: What are a couple of your team goals this year?</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em>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.</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">PHD: Who are some of the top teams in your Region?</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em>Bowman-  Their experience.</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">North Border Eagles</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"small"} --> <p class="has-small-font-size"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">Q&amp;A with coach <em>Moore</em></span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">PHD: What can you tell us about last season?</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em>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.</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">PHD: How did the off-season go?</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em>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.</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">PHD: Who are your top players to watch?</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em>[player_tooltip player_id='1180870' first='Grayson' last='Ohmann'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1165355' first='Grant' last='Cosley'] 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.  [player_tooltip player_id='1886038' first='Brody' last='Berg'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1180878' first='Kade' last='Schafer'] 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.</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">PHD: Who are some of your up-n-comers?</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em>[player_tooltip player_id='2237754' first='Weston' last='Cosley'], [player_tooltip player_id='2237765' first='Kaden' last='Moore'], and [player_tooltip player_id='2237797' first='Garret' last='Willits'] 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.</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">PHD: What style of basketball will you play?</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em>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.</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">PHD: Who do you see as the top teams in your Region?</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"<em>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!</em>"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:image {"id":1606306,"sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"media"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/09/NorthDakota.jpg"><img src="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/09/NorthDakota.jpg?w=865" alt="" class="wp-image-1606306" /></a></figure> <!-- /wp:image -->