The Bismarck High girls basketball team went along in first gear for awhile.

When the Demons decided to kick it in, they skipped the other stages and went directly into fifth gear.

No. 1-seeded Bismarck throttled eighth-seeded Williston 98-52 in the quarterfinals of the West Region tournament on Thursday at the Civic Center.

Williston was within eight of the Demons at 7:40 of the first half, but Bismarck's Sarah Feeney started a 15-6 run with a layup at 7:03. Feeney closed the rally with another lay-in with 1:25 left to put Bismarck up 39-20.

"Nerves hit you at tournament time," said Bismarck reserve Shannon Schmidt, who came off the bench to add nine points. "You get to play in the big show in the Civic Center. It's nice to get the first one out of the way."

The Demons finished the first half with a 43-22 advantage. Bismarck coach Steve Meier said his team let Williston hang around for awhile in the first half because of fouls. The Coyotes hit 9 of 11 attempts from the free-throw line in the first half. Williston only made four trips to the charity stripe in the second half, knocking down three.

"We felt we put them at the line too much," Meier said. "In the second half we played so much better defensively. We defended all the way and got our transition game going."

Alex Feeney paced the Demons with 19 points. Kelsey Reimnitz added 15 and Carlie Buechler came off the bench and added 10.

Williston's Jamie Njos finished with a big game, tallying 25 points.

The Demons' defense forced Williston into 37 turnovers. Bismarck collected 29 steals with three players leading with four each.

"We felt we played OK in the first half, but we didn't feel like we played great basketball," Schmidt said. "In the second half we felt we played better."

Fourteen players logged playing time for the Demons with 11 of them scoring.

"It's huge that our bench can come off and compete with varsity teams," Schmidt said. "We can go 10, 12, 14 deep and be OK. We have so many combinations we can put on the floor."

With so many players seeing action, Meier believes it will help his team for later on in the tournament. Bismarck needs to notch just one more victory in the tournament to earn a berth into the Class A state tourney.

"Our strength has been our depth," Meier said. "We are able to go deep, and we feel we don't miss a beat. We need players to step in and fill key roles, and we did that."

WHS (52): Abby Hagen 0-0 0-0 0, Kayla Kain 1-5 2-2 4, Chelsea Hicks 2-6 1-1 6, Jamie Njos 7-14 8-8 25, Megan Torgerson 1-3 0-1 2, Casondra Kleven 0-3 0-0 0, Mari Goldade 0-0 0-0 0, Danielle Clarke 4-6 0-1 8, Kinsi Olson 0-0 0-0 0, Brie Soiseth 0-1 0-0 0, Brittany Nice 3-6 1-2 7, Miranda Zavalney 0-0 0-0 0, Tessa Neether 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 19-48 12-15 52.

BHS (98): Kelsey Reimnitz 6-9 2-2 15, Kelsey Sigl 4-8 1-1 9, Karli Gilbertson 2-5 1-2 6, Sarah Feeney 3-7 2-7 8, Alex Feeney 8-13 3-5 19, Annie Assel 1-1 2-2 4, Carlie buechler 5-8 0-2 10, Liz Assel 3-3 2-2 8, Averi Schmidt 1-2 1-2 3, Kaitlyn Sturlaugson 0-2 0-0 0, Shannon Schmidt 3-5 3-4 9, Emily Seagren 0-0 0-0 0, Heather Schultz 0-0 0-0 0, Chelsea Lingle 0-0 7-8 7. Totals: 36-65 24-37 98.

Halftime: BHS 43, WHS 22.

3-pointers: WHS 2 (Hicks 1, Njos 1), BHS 2 (Reimnitz 1, Gilbertson 1). Rebounds: WHS 30 (Clarke 5, Njos 5), BHS 37 (S. Feeney 6). Assists: WHS 6 (six with one), BHS 18 (three with three). Steals: WHS 6 (Clarke 2, Torgerson 2), BHS 29 (three with four). Turnovers: WHS 37, BHS 17. Fouls: WHS 26, BHS 18. Fouled out: WHS, Hagen and Clarke.

Records: Bismarck 19-1; Williston 3-18.