Trenton has a record of 50-2 over the past two seasons and its only losses came at the 2018-19 state tournament. Last season the Tigers earned a seventh-place finish and lost to Hettinger-Scranton in overtime and Kidder County in the consolation semifinals.

The No. 3-seeded Tigers (25-0) pride themselves on defense and are led by a talented duo in senior Kaity Hove (17.5 ppg, 9.5 rpg and 9 apg) and junior Alyssa St. Pierre (14.5 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 2.4 apg and 2.2 spg). Hove is a 3-time All-State selection and Trenton’s all-time leading scorer, rebounder, assists leader and steals leader. She recently won Region 8 Senior Athlete of the Year and has recorded nine triple-doubles this season. Hove also has three career quadruple-doubles.

St. Pierre has 1,293 career points and 876 career rebounds. She’s a versatile scorer and plays with effort every possession for the Tigers. Trenton expects a lot out of Hove and St. Pierre but all five student-athletes in the starting lineup can score. The Tigers have five student-athletes that average eight points or more per game. Head coach Bob Turcotte said, “We have a balanced team that is capable of scoring in a variety of ways. We have capable perimeter shooting most nights and we do have several kids that can play with post presence. We have seen pretty much every defense a team can see over the course of the last two years. This team shares the ball offensively and

we generally have five scoring threats on the floor.”

Turcotte did mention how his teams size advantage may be a weakness but the Tigers do have some height with post players senior Kella Norby (6-foot-2) and sophomore Jacee Turcotte (5-foot-9). Trenton isn’t a very deep team either as they’ll bring just two girls off the bench. However, the Tigers did get a boost in numbers when senior Taytum Kreil returned from an ACL tear on Feb. 8. In Trenton’s three Region 8 tournament games they’ve outscored its opponents 170-110.

Interesting note: Bob Turcotte picked up his 500th career win in the Region 8 championship game against Kenmare.

State tournament prediction: The Tigers may not have played the cream of the crop in Class B this season but with two players like Hove and St. Pierre anything is possible in a three-day tournament. Trenton also brings a sharp shooter in junior Raquel Archer off the bench as she is a nightmare matchup for opponents. I also really like the upperclassmen leadership on this team. Nine out of the 12 student-athletes on the Tigers roster are upperclassmen. When matching teams up against each other I usually give the advantage to the team with more upperclassmen. With that being said I think Trenton is a lock for a fourth-place finish or higher. If they can knock off Shiloh Christian in Thursday’s quarterfinals they’ll have a tough semifinals matchup with either No. 2-seed Grafton or Rugby but I predict Trenton to be one of the final four teams standing come Friday.

Starting Lineup

Kaity Hove | Sr. | G | 5-foot-7

Alexa St. Pierre | Jr. | G | 5-foot-7

Alyssa St. Pierre | Jr. | F | 5-foot-8

Kella Norby | Sr. | C | 6-foot-2

Jacee Turcotte | So. | F | 5-foot-9