In early December, Kylee Bittner signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Dickinson State University.

The 5-foot-7 Hebron-Glen Ullin guard has given the DSU coaching staff reason to smile ever since.

Bittner has emerged as one of the top all-around players in Class B girls basketball. After 17 games, she's averaging 22.4 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.2 steals and 5.3 assists. The highlight of her season thus far came last Saturday, when she tossed in a career-high 40 points in a 65-57 victory over Flasher.

Bittner, whose previous single-game high was 31 (Nov. 29), went 12-for-19 from the floor - 2-for-5 from 3-point land - and 14-for-16 from the charity stripe to set a new Hebron-Glen Ullin co-op record, as well as a new Glen Ullin High School mark.

"Kylee was pretty much unstoppable," Hebron-Glen Ullin coach Chris Geiss said. "(Flasher) was chasing her the whole night, and she still got off 24 good shots. Actually, that's been the case for her the whole season. She's our big scorer and defenses pay a lot of attention to her. But she gets her points."

Bittner, a Glen Ullin High School senior, said it was "just one of those nights."

"My shot was really on. … It seemed like everything I put up went in," said Bittner, who also had eight rebounds, six steals and seven assists that night. "We were going pretty fast the whole game. … I didn't realize that I had that many points until it was over. When I heard I had 40, I was pretty shocked."

Bittner has been on a tear since scoring a season-low 12 points on 5-for-22 shooting in a loss to Beach on opening night (Nov. 27). In the 16 games since, she's scored 20 or more points 12 times, and 19 twice. Her shooting percentages are on the rise as well. For the season, she's shooting 47 percent from the floor, 43 percent from the 3-point stripe, and 65 percent from the free-throw line. She leads all Class B players with 43 treys.

"Kylee can hurt teams in a lot of ways," Geiss said. "She can post up, and she can shoot accurately from medium and long range. And she gets a lot of points off turnovers, too. She's a very good defender. She creates a lot of opportunities for easy baskets."

Bittner's scoring average ranks among the state's best. So does her assists average.

"Kylee's a very unselfish player. … You don't see many big-time scorers putting up assists numbers like that," Geiss said. "She passes well, and she tries to get everyone involved. That's something the college coaches really like about her."

A starter since her sophomore year, Bittner is approaching the 1,000-point mark for her career. She has 953 going into tonight's game against Richardton-Taylor.

"Kylee averaged about 10 points her sophomore year, and 14 last year," said Geiss, whose team is 8-9 overall. "She's always been a good player, but she's improved considerably from last year to this year. She put in a lot of time, and it's paying off."

Nelson goes wild

Speaking of 40-point efforts, Turtle Lake-Mercer's Evan Nelson had one Tuesday against Hazen.

The senior point guard netted 42 in the unranked Trojans' impressive 99-72 victory over the No. 10 Bison at Hazen.

Nelson, who also had a game-high seven steals, dropped in 15 of 19 floor shots, including nine of 12 tries from the 3-point stripe.

"Evan's the type of kid who can light it up," TL-M coach Joi Anderson said. "(Hazen) played a man-to-man and he was able to get free for good shots. He got hot early and never really cooled off. He shot the ball extremely well the whole night."

The Trojans, who have won 12 straight games since losing their season opener, also got 24 points and eight rebounds from sophomore Grant Singer, and 17 points and 11 assists from junior Cameron Malzer.

TL-M shot a sizzling 64 percent (36-for-57) from the floor.

The Trojans hit the century mark last Saturday, rolling past Velva 100-63. Nelson (28), Singer (23) and Malzer (23) combined for 74 points in that one.

Hazen's Chad Marshall had a big night against TL-M, scoring 34 points on 16-for-22 shooting. The junior passed the 1,000-point mark in career scoring last Friday in Hazen's 52-40 victory over Dickinson Trinity. He now has 1,035.

"Chad has spent a lot of time working on that portion of his game," Hazen said Randy Johnson said. "He's a strong player inside and around the perimeter. And he gives himself lots of good chances by crashing the offensive boards."

Marshall, who also had seven rebounds and six assists against the Trojans, is averaging 22 points per game.

Super sophomore

Adam Randall is picking up where 2007 Mr. Basketball finalist Mark Bakkum left off with the Steele-Dawson Pirates.

The 6-foot-4 sophomore is averaging 27.3 points for the Pirates, who have won 10 of their first 12 games.

Randall, who averaged 14 points last season as a freshman regular, has scored 20 or more points 10 times this season. He has games of 40 (Dec. 7) and 46 points (Jan. 12) to his credit.