West Fargo’s efforts fall just short as Bismarck Century returns to ND Division AA boys title game

BISMARCK — Down 14 points at halftime, West Fargo didn’t quit.

The Packers made Friday’s North Dakota Division AA boys basketball state tournament semifinal game against Bismarck Century interesting late, but were unable to complete the comeback in a 69-67 loss to the Patriots at the Bismarck Event Center.

“This is a great team over here that we just played,” said Century junior Gibson Kinnebrew, who finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Patriots to the state title game for the second straight year. “We’ve been through this before, we just had to stay aggressive. We knew (West Fargo) was going to keep fighting. We just had to stay gritty, keep the aggressiveness up and play as a team.”

With the win, West No. 2 Century (22-4) will get a chance to defend its 2025 state title. The Patriots will play West No. 1 Bismarck (25-1) at 8 p.m. Saturday back at the Bismarck Event Center.

Century dealt Bismarck its lone defeat this season, a 73-64 result in January. The Demons won the other regular season contest over the Patriots, as well as last weekend’s West Region championship game.

“We’ve just got to talk on defense and keep our guys in front of us,” Kinnebrew said. “We’ve got to calm down on offense too, but we’ve just got to play solid.”

East No. 1 West Fargo (19-7) will play West No. 3 Dickinson (18-8) in the third-place game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

Down 38-24 at half, the Packers clawed away at the deficit over the final 18 minutes. With 1:19 left, an Aiden Samek bucket brought West Fargo as close as it had been all night — bringing the margin to just four at 65-61.

Later, AJ Brackins hit a late jumper to pull the Packers within two points at 69-67 with 0.7 seconds remaining on the clock.

On the ensuing Century inbound, the Patriots heaved the ball to half-court where West Fargo’s Beckett Pfau picked it off. One final desperation shot from Pfau was off the mark and, regardless, didn’t make it out of his hands before the final horn.

West Fargo shot just 27.6% in the first half and were unable to recover from an 11-0 Century run to open the game.

“You’ve got to make your layups, we were a little bit cold from 3, and we shot too many early ones,” West Fargo head coach Adam Palczewski said. “So the shot selection was rough, but sometimes they go in. I have 100% confidence in my guys and I’ll never not believe in those guys.”

David Samson / The Forum

Zavion Harildstad opened the scoring for Century with a two-point bucket. He was followed up by three consecutive triples from Braylon Aldinger, Kinnebrew and Aldinger again.

Brackins stopped the early bleeding for the Packers with a pair of free throws, but the Patriots utilized the momentum from the early scoring sequence and never relinquished the lead.

“We had a layup to start the game and we didn’t shoot it,” Palczewski said. “There was no shell shock (to start). We just didn’t make our shots.”

The Packers finished the night 23 of 59 (39%) from the floor including 7 of 23 (30.4%) from range.

Samek paced West Fargo with 18 points. Haakon Seymour had 13 points to go with seven rebounds. Brackins and Wyatt Knudsen each had 11 points and six boards while Stephon Booth led the Packers in rebounds with eight.

West Fargo’s roster consisted of nine seniors this season.

“They’re amazing,” Palczewski said. “They did everything and they expect nothing. I just don’t want to let those guys down. I’m so happy to coach those young men.”

David Samson / The Forum

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Century finished 25 of 60 (41.7%) shooting including 8 of 25 (32%) from three. Kinnebrew’s double-double was followed up by 12 points from Garrett Nissley. Harildstad collected eight rebounds.

David Samson / The Forum

David Samson / The Forum

David Samson / The Forum

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David Samson / The Forum

David Samson / The Forum

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