DEVILS LAKE — The Firebirds entered Saturday having lost five of their last six games.
A day earlier, head coach Dustin Brodina admitted that his team’s offense hadn’t been consistent enough.
With all that in mind, a 34-point first quarter was exactly what Devils Lake needed.
“The boys came out really hard,” Brodina said. “They came out with defensive intensity, which I was happy to see. Kind of, a little bit, a chip on their shoulder after losing a few games in a row here.”
The Firebirds (8-5) led 34-14 after the first quarter and 55-27 at halftime. With their starters out for most of the second half, they cruised to a 77-53 win over Dunseith (6-3) in the Devils Lake Youth Activities Shootout on Saturday.
“It helps the emotion, the aura around the team,” senior Kade Fee said. “It helps everything. The feeling, it’s good.”
Fee’s pair of three-pointers gave the Firebirds an early spark. Up 8-5, Devils Lake then went on a 19-2 run.
Eight players found the scoring column for Devils Lake in the first quarter. Ben Brodina led the way with 10 points.
The Firebirds had put-backs and breakaways galore, not to mention five triples in the first quarter and 10 in the game.
“What we preach all the time is to not hesitate,” Brodina said. “Be aggressive. We have that attack mentality. If it’s not there, we kick it to the next guy, and the next guy attacks. I thought we did a great job of that, attacking, but it fed off our defense. Our defense played really well. We were able to get stops and get out and run.”
When Devils Lake’s shots did miss, Bryar Exner or Alex Hammond was usually there to grab it. Exner played a particularly gritty first half.
“Definitely a workhorse. … They just go for every O-board. They’re just relentless on the boards,” Fee said. “Those two were getting boards, and we finished every time.”
Brodina also appreciated the intentionality Exner and Hammond brought to that aspect of their games.
“Those guys are dogs on the boards,” Brodina said. “And that’s just pure effort. It doesn’t take any talent to go get a rebound. And I’m proud of them guys for that. … That’s just fun to see there, how hard they work.”
Devils Lake’s defense got progressively better in each of the first three quarters, with 14, 13 and 11 points allowed, respectively.
“We were trapping them,” Fee said. “And we kept really good pressure, good ball pressure. And we were just moving the ball. We were playing as a team. We were getting open shots; we were getting the best looks we could.”
Brodina got down the floor a couple more times in the third quarter to finish with a game-high 23 points.
Fee was second on the team with 10. Hammond had nine, while Exner had seven, all in the first half. Miguel Dunn had nine off the bench, with 4-of-5 free throw shooting.
Devils Lake pulled its starters with four minutes left in the third quarter, up by 37 points.
Dunseith inched slightly closer with an 11-0 run during a running clock in the fourth quarter. The Firebirds got two triples off their bench in the final eight minutes.
Devils Lake has another non-region game coming up, hosting Valley City on Thursday. It should be another relatively low-stress outing before the Firebirds go on the road for a tough region game against Hillsboro/Central Valley on Feb. 5.
“Just working for the next day, the next day, the next game,” Fee said. “We’ve just got to keep working together. It’ll get better. That’s our mentality.”
The week started with a tough region loss to Grafton on Monday, then culminated with games on back-to-back days.
The upcoming week is a little less of a grind, schedule-wise.
“We’ve got some practice time now. We can shore some things up,” Brodina said. “We’re still having some turnovers and little things that we can shore up, and maybe get in a little better shape so we don’t run out of gas in some of the games. But it’s good to build off of this. It’s going to be some exciting enthusiasm going forward instead of — you know, you don’t always want to be on the losing end, because your mentality kind of goes down.
“But I’m happy for the guys. Get a couple days off, and we’ll get back after it.”
Other scores from Saturday at the Sports Center
Valley City 63, Rugby 65
No. 2 Central Cass 62, Turtle Mountain 60
Grafton 90, Stanley 46
No. 1 Four Winds/Minnewaukan 64, No. 3 Kindred 63
Thompson 64, Des Lacs-Burlington 42
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