It wasn't that Sidney had a bad game, Williston, N.D., just had that good of a game as the Eagles suffered a 100-75 loss to the Coyotes Tuesday at Williston in the season opener for both teams.

Despite shooting 63 percent from the field in the first half, Sidney found itself down 60-38 heading into the second half of play. The reason - a 73 percent shooting percentage by the Coyotes including a 10-13 performance from beyond the arc.

"Like I told the kids, I'm not thrilled to give up that many points, but they (Williston) shot phenomenally. We might not have got to some shooters, but the percentage they shot in the first half was incredible," Sidney Head Coach Rollie Sullivan said. "I'm not saying we don't have a few things to shore up, but you need to give them (Williston) their credit. We just ran into an awfully hot-shooting team."

duane norby | sidney herald Sidney's Nathan Johnson, right, puts up a shot over the top of Williston's Taylor Grundstad in a Tuesday night, 100-75 loss.

At the conclusion of the game, Williston's three-pointers numbered an astounding 16. Mistakes, however, plagued Sidney as well. The team ended play with 23 turnovers. A shining light to the night, though, was the Eagles' performance from the charity stripe going 28-31 for the game.

Behind the shooting of Mike DeLorne and inside play of 6-7 Brent Qvale, Williston jumped out to a early 9-2 lead five minutes into the first half of play. DeLorne hit eight "threes" throughout the course of the game.

"We knew they would be a handful around the basket, but we didn't expect DeLorne to go off on us like he did," Sullivan said.

Although a 12-foot pull-up jumper by Jordan Abelseth and inside basket by Matt Brenner cut the Coyotes' lead back to six, 12-6, another inside bucket by Qvale against the Eagles' zone defense and back-to-ack three-pointers by DeLorne quickly opened up a 25-9 Williston lead midway through the first half of play.

Despite a nice jump hook shot in the lane by Allen Andersen and "three" by Nathan Johnson, Sidney was unable cut into the Coyotes' lead as the Eagles trailed 34-16 with 6:44 left in the half. Williston's inside-out game continued to hurt the Eagles as Qvale scored inside and DeLorne and Jordan Braun delivered from the perimeter.

With the Eagles behind 47-26, a strong baseline drive by Johnson netted Johnson an old-fashion three-point play with four minutes remaining in the half. A scoring offensive rebound by Brenner at the 1:30 mark resulted in a 52-34 Sidney deficit. But a buzzer-beating "three" by Cameron McFarlin helped the Coyotes to a 22-point halftime lead, 60-38.

In the first half, Johnson and Andersen combined for 15 points from the free throw line. Andersen went 6-6 while Johnson was 7-9. Each finished the half with 14 points.

The Eagles mounted a big comeback in the second half behind a 10-foot baseline jumper by Andersen, three-pointer by Jared Baisch and free throws by Johnson.

With a nice pass form Tyrell McPherson to Brenner, the Eagles managed to cut the Coyotes' lead back to 14 points with 12 minutes remaining to play, 70-56.

Once again, though, Williston began to light up the scoreboard from the perimeter as Sidney was outscored 20-9 over the next eight minutes of play. With 4:12 left on the clock, the score read Williston 90, Sidney 65. The two teams played to a 10-10 deadlock in the final four minutes of play resulting in the 25-point Sidney loss.

"I was very pleased with the number of times we got to the free throw line and with how aggressively we got to the basket, Nathan in particular," Sullivan said. "We had good scoring out of our three returning varsity members. If we can get a few others to step up, we'll be very potent offensively."

Johnson led the Eagles in scoring with 29 points. Andersen followed with 22. Brenner ended play with 12. Jordan Abelseth added four points while Baisch and Tyrell McPherson each netted three. Devin Bell scored two points.

Williston was led by DeLorne with 28 points and Qvale with 25.