BELFIELD N.D. — Belfield junior Carter Corneil walked out of the locker room postgame with plenty to smile about.
The junior poured in 17 points to lead the Bantams to a 63-40 win over Hettinger-Scranton on Friday, Jan. 2 at Belfield High School.
“I just like to play basketball,” Corneil said. “I just like going out there and getting buckets, it doesn’t matter to me how I get it.”
Corneil scored those buckets from all three levels on Friday night. In the first quarter, he knocked down a trio of 3-pointers to help the Bantams jump out to a 24-10 lead after one quarter.
Coming out of halftime with a 36-20 lead, Hettinger-Scranton cut the deficit to single digits, but timely shot-making by Corneil and the Bantams prevented the Nighthawks from getting back within striking distance.
Holding leads has been a problem that’s plagued the Bantams at times this season. In the Roughrider tournament, they let a few leads slip, resulting in narrow losses – not the case Friday.
“I’m just proud of our team for keeping the energy up,” Corneil said. “Sometimes we lose energy and the other team starts to make a comeback, and I’m proud of us for keeping our flow and playing our game.”
That energy didn’t just manifest on the offensive end.
Belfield took down Hettinger-Scranton 63-40 on Friday, Jan. 2 at Belfield High School.
Carter Dooner / The Dickinson Press
Belfield’s overall aggression and identity have been to create chaos, and they thrived under that chaos for the full 32 minutes – especially defensively.
The Bantams forced a handful of 10-second violations and sped the Nighthawks up all night long, resulting in a bevy of turnovers.
“Our practices are going to be chaotic. We’re going to make people play under our chaos, and I think we did that tonight,” Belfield head coach Jace Kocer said. “We fly around and have an athletic group of kids, so I try to give them that freedom. And they just love playing basketball, so it’s not hard to get them into that mindset.”
Belfield also got contributions beyond Corneil. Last year’s leading scorer Shane Stroh added 12 points, while Sutton Johnson and Noah Obrigewitch chipped in 10 and eight, respectively.
Belfield took down Hettinger-Scranton 63-40 on Friday, Jan. 2 at Belfield High School.
Carter Dooner / The Dickinson Press
“One of the big things for us is that we knew Carter [Corneil] was going to be awesome, and we knew Shane [Stroh] was going to be a great player; it was about filling those new roles with new players, ” Kocer said. “When the next piece is up, it’s just how we can get the next guys to play their part, and they did an awesome job tonight.”
For the Nighthawks, there were glimpses. The team was fresh off a nearly two-week hiatus and had played just two games this season, making Friday’s game a tall task.
“We knew coming in that Belfield was a physical team and liked to play chaotic and push tempo,” Hettinger-Scranton head coach Kelly Pierce said. “We did not come out of the locker room ready for that, and they got off to a great start. Once we kind of woke up and started playing a little more physically and understanding what we wanted to do defensively, we did alright.”
Belfield will step right back into action on Saturday, Jan 3, against Trenton. Hettinger-Scranton will travel South on Saturday to take on Faith.
Carter is a sports reporter for the Dickinson Press. Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2025 with a journalism degree.