Wimbledon, ND (NewsDakota.com) – The Oakes Tornadoes struggled through the middle portions of their game against the Barnes County North Bison falling 46-44.

The game started well for the Tornadoes as they were able to take a 15-8 lead after the first quarter of play being led by lights out shooting by Beau Thorpe from the free throw line. However the Bison would battle back in the next quarter outscoring the Tornadoes 11-8 but were unable to take a lead. They were also out rebounding the Tornadoes throughout the game. The score at the half would be 23-19 Tornadoes.

Neither team shot particularly well in the first half with Oakes shooting a combined 9/24 from the field and BCN shooting 8/20 from the field.

The 3rd quarter saw a surge for the Bison as they went 8/12 in the quarter to take the lead from Oakes making it 38-29. They would maintain that lead well into the 4th quarter when the Tornadoes, led by Chris Titus began a comeback. They would bring it to within two at the end of the game but a last second 3-ball by Braysen Sagert bounced off the rim to end the game and give the Bison the 46-44 victory.

The all around leading scorer was Will Schwer who went 6/10 from the field and 2/4 from the stripe for 14 points. The Tornadoes were led by Chris Titus who went 4/7 from the field and 2/2 from the stripe for 11 and Beau Thorpe who went 2/15 from the field but 7/9 from the stripe for 11.

The Bison are now 1-0 in District play and rise to 5-3 while the Tornadoes fall to (1-1, 4-4).

The Bank North Player of the Game was Chris Titus.

Next up for the Tornadoes is Napoleon-GS on Saturday, Jan 13th.