Disruptiveness.

It's frowned upon in the classroom but it can work wonders on the basketball court.

Mandan's man-to-man defense kept Minot in a general state of disruption Tuesday night at Mandan Highs School.That set the stage for a 68-38 West Region boys basketball blowout.

"We didn't let them get into a rhythm," Mandan coach JasonHorner said of his team's tenacious defensive effort.

The stat sheets bear mute testimony to Horner's analysis. Minot shot just 8-for-31 from the floor in the first half and 6-for-18 in the second half. That comes out to 24 percent for the evening. The Magicians connected on just one of 13 3-point tries.

In addition, Mandan controlled the boards 55-28 with 6-foot-7 junior post BryanKielpinski yanking down 14 caroms.

Mandan didn't exactly set the place on fire offensively, shooting 46 percent. However, with their fierce defensive play, they merely had to be ordinary on the offensive end to get the job done.

Senior forward Jordan Maurer said the Braves achieved most of their defensive bench marks.

"Our goal is to hold them under 60 points every game and we try to be plus-8 in rebounds every game," said the 6-1 Maurer. "And we don't want to give up any easy shots."

Returning all-region player Andrew Crosby, a 6-3 senior, was the only Minot player in double figures, scoring 13 points. However, he was just 3-for-16 from the field.

"Crosby is a good player and we know he's going to score and we know he's going to get the ball,"said Maurer, who added nine rebounds. "But we had Kielpinski there to help defensively and we got a lot of ball pressure to make it tough for them to get the ball inside."

Kielpinski led a balancedBraves attack with 17 points. Guard Jordan Thilmony suffered through a tough shooting night but finished with 16 points and Maurer tallied 13.

"We didn't shoot as well as we normally do but we fought through that and got the ball inside and went inside out,"Maurer said. "Bryan had a good game."

Maurer said going into the game he would have imagined only one route to a 30-point victory.

"They're a very, very good team and I'd have thought for us to have a chance to do that we'd have to shoot the lights out,"he said.

Instead, they turned Minot's lights out.

The top-ranked Braves improved to 6-0 on the season, 3-0 in the region. Minot slipped to 2-2 and 3-2.

Mandan pushed Minot into a corner early and steadily pulled away.

With the game tied 8-8, Thilmony swished a 3-pointer and sent the Brave off on a 8-2 run that made it 16-10.

Thilmony drove the lane for a basket that gave Mandan a 30-20 halftime lead, the Braves' first double-digit advantage.

Mandan scored the first four points of the second half and shortly took off on a 19-7 run. Two free throws by Kielpinski closed the blitz and made it 53-31 with 5:29 to play.

From that point on it was all academic. Minot got no closer than 17 the rest of the way.

Even after Horner benched his starters with 2:18 to play the Braves continued to stretch the lead. Jacob Friesz canned a pair of 3-pointers in the final two minutes and Jay Flaa bombed in one.

"Those JV kids can shoot," Horner said. "… I wasn't comfortable until two and one-half minutes to go."

Horner said Mandan's stout defensive play was an accumulation of fine points.

"We preach little things. The little things that you don't think make a difference in one possession add up to be a big thing," Horner said.

The Mandan coach said the final score is misleading if it causes people to downgrade Minot.

"That's a good (Minot)team,"Horner said. "But we dug in. We didn't shoot very well but we told the kids if they defend like that they'll be in the game every night. And when we started hitting our shots it kind of snowballed."

MINOT(38): Andrew Crosby 3-16 7-10 13, BryanPhillips 1-3 0-0 2, Jordan Rubbelke 1-8 0-0 2, Kent Luetzen 3-8 0-0 7, Jarid Hoffman 1-5 1-1 3, Jesse Crosby 1-4 0-0 2, Donte Smart 2-6 0-2 4, Kalvin Larson 2-6 1-2 5, Max Murphy 0-0 0-0 0, Jacob Hanson 0-0 0-0 0, Giacomo Murazzi 0-2 0-0 0, Erik Larson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 14-59 9-15 38.

MANDAN(68):JordanMaurer 7-12 1-2 15, Jesse Kist 2-7 0-0 4, Bryan Kielpinski 5-8 7-9 17, Jordan Thilmony 6-17 2-2 16, Sam Arneson 0-4 0-0 0, Tyler Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Mike Miller 1-1 1-2 3, Coulee Luger 2-4 0-0 4, Jacob Friesz 2-2 0-0 6, Britan Eisenbeis 0-0 0-0 0, Taylor Volk 0-1 0-1 0, Jay Flaa 1-1 0-0 3, Garrett Kirchmeier 0-0 0-0 0. Totals:26-57 11-16 68.

Halftime: Mandan 30, Minot 20.

3-pointers:Minot 1-13 (Luetzen), Mandan 5-12 (Thilmony 2, Friesz 2, Flaa 1). Rebounds: Minot 28 (A.Crosby 10), Mandan 55 (Kielpinski 14, Maurer 9). Fouls: Minot 19, Mandan 15. Fouled out:J.Crosby.Technical Fouls: Mandan, insufficient players. Assists:Minot 8 (Hoffman 3), Mandan 10 (Thilmony 3). Turnovers: Minot 12, Mandan 15.

JV:Mandan 64, Minot 51.

Records:Minot 2-2 West Region, 3-2 overall; Mandan 3-0, 6-0.