DEVILS LAKE — The No. 1 Firebirds will hang up their stockings, decorate their Christmas trees and tear open presents knowing they have a perfect record.
Devils Lake (5-0) beat Minot North (0-5) in a 68-37 cruise Monday evening at the Devils Lake Sports Center.
It was a 30-point improvement from the Firebirds’ last game on the defensive end.
“I was happy with our defensive effort tonight. We rotated a lot better,” Devils Lake head coach Dustin Brodina said. “Our goal was 35, and they got 37. So still pretty good. They kind of goofed us up a little bit with the zone, but we were able to execute in the second half.”
It was already the third Class AA opponent the Firebirds have beaten this year. And they’ve done it by margins of 19, 22 and 31.
“It goes from learning the history and knowing that you’ve got to be really physical, and you’ve got to hit the weight room, things like that,” Brodina said. “That separates the A and the Double-A, that those guys do a lot of. And we’ve done that a lot in the past, and that’s kind of proved, I think, our success at the Double-A level.”
The Firebirds came out roaring in the first quarter with an 18-2 lead.
Max Palmer, less than a week after hitting a school-record 10 threes in a game, opened Monday’s contest with three triples in the first quarter. His twin brother, Mason, also hit one.
The three-headed scoring monster of Palmer, Palmer and Ben Brodina combined for 20 points in the first quarter.
The Firebirds’ offense was more sluggish in the middle of the game. They made just four field goals in the second quarter. Max Palmer hit his fourth triple, and Talan Gregory provided a three off the bench.
There wasn’t much additional offense in the second quarter.
“I don’t know if our legs still aren’t under us. Maybe a little bit,” Brodina said. “We wanted to get out the ball and push it really fast in transition. Because I figured they were going to do some sort of a zone. So if you can get out in transition, it kind of eliminates that.”
Despite decent defense, Minot North didn’t have a whole lot going for it offensively, either. Its leading scorer, Brayden Blikre, had nine in the first half, and that was the most of any Sentinel.
Devils Lake led 32-19 at halftime.
The Firebirds built off their lead in the third quarter and put the hammer down in the fourth. As Max Palmer’s scoring slowed down, Mason Palmer’s heated up. He scored 11 in the third quarter after none in the second. He also went 5-for-7 from the free throw line in the quarter and 6-for-8 in the game.
Devils Lake led by 21 after three quarters and then outscored Minot North 15-5 in the final eight minutes.
Max Palmer hit his fifth triple and scored nine points in the fourth quarter. He had a team-high 25 points. Mason didn’t score in the final period but was second on the team with 19 points.
Kade Fee played a strong game inside and earned the team’s honorary “Dirty Bird” award. Fee and the team posed afterwards in the locker room with a handful of alumni who were home for Christmas break. The picture included athletes who have since gone to the college level, such as Wylee Delorme, Joel Nelson, Oliver Wirth and Parker and Beau Brodina.
Devils Lake completely held Blikre off the board in the second half. Elijah Thomas ended up leading the Sentinels with 11 points.
It was back to the usual territory in points allowed by the Firebirds.
“I want to challenge these guys. Make sure we’re solid every possession,” Brodina said. “And we want to stack them possessions, one after another after another, and not make any mistakes. And hopefully by the end of the season, we’re eliminating all the mistakes. So, yeah, I was proud of that.”
Devils Lake still has one game left before the new year. The No. 1 Firebirds are set to take on No. 2 Beulah at the Minot State Dome on Dec. 29. It will likely be their toughest test yet.
In the first week of January, Devils Lake will face a ranked region opponent in Four Winds/Minnewaukan and a Wahpeton squad that just beat FW/M by 20 points.
“I feel good. But we’ve got a really tough schedule coming up,” Brodina said. “And some of the best teams in Class A coming up right here after Christmas. So we’ll see where we’re at. And it’ll be good for us, because that’s what we want. We want to see where we’re at early in the season here, and things that we can work on towards the end.”
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