Marial Deng and Tyler Black Jr. lock in defensively for the Indians.
THOMPSON — On Friday, No. 1 Four Winds/Minnewaukan began a stretch of six straight region games worth 11 points in the standings.
In just their second region contest of the season, and first since Jan. 5, the Indians (10-1, 3-0) rolled over the Thompson Tommies (6-7, 5-3) by a score of 70-43 for their ninth straight win. It was a two-pointer in the region standings.
“I don’t think it was as clean as I’d like it to be,” said head coach Rick Smith, who won his 500th game as head coach of the Indians. “But again, we’re coming off another six-day layoff. And after an emotional win against Kindred, and then you take six days off, practice gets a little old after a while. But it was good, again, to get back on the court.”
FW/M did not make any field goals until over five minutes into the game. Marial Deng had the Indians’ first four points, all on free throws, but he didn’t make any field goals of his own in the first half.
“We knew they were going to come out and be physical on the defensive end,” Smith said. “We knew they weren’t going to give easy baskets up to us.”
Jonte Delorme made a pair of nice inside moves for FW/M’s first two field goals. Sonny Alberts hit a three, and the Indians cruised to runs of 13-0 and 23-2.
“Once we started forcing some turnovers and getting easy baskets on our own, different guys kind of took turns of taking care of the offense,” Smith said.
Delorme led the offense with 10 points in the first half and 18 overall. He didn’t have his long-range shot down Friday night; he never connected on a triple. But he played a different style, getting down the floor and making layups in transition.
“Jonte can do that,” Smith said. “There’s something about left-handers. When they get into the paint, they’re tough to handle. And he handles the ball extremely well. And so he’s a tough matchup. When we can spread them out and they’re taking Marial away, if we can get Jonte a little clear area there, he can get to the rim and he can finish. … His outside game wasn’t working tonight, but I’m glad that he didn’t settle on that, and start changing his game around and start getting to the rim.”
Thompson, as a team, doesn’t shoot a ton of threes. But the Tommies had serious cold stretches where they couldn’t finish, either.
They cleaned things up marginally towards the end of the first half, with a mini run of 6-2. Later, in the second half, they got two triples off the bench by freshman Grady Hurst.
Otherwise, Thompson had to work hard for most of its points. The Tommies didn’t have any players reach double figures.
“I thought our defensive intensity was good,” Smith said. “Could it be better? Yeah, it could be better. I thought we gave up too many offensive rebounds to them. We’ve got to clean that up. … Our weak-side rotations weren’t clean in the first half. They were getting some layups on us.”
Smith added that Tyler Black Jr. was key defensively. It helped that Black was able to stay out of foul trouble, with only two on the night.
“Tyler Black had a heck of a game on the defensive end,” Smith said. “Kind of his type of game, the physicality that he likes to play, and then everybody else kind of chipped in.”
No singular player carried the Indians on Friday, but each a few guys got their moment in the sun. Deng broke out with a big third quarter where he scored 11 points. He finished with 17. His scoring included an athletic reverse layup where he got fouled and completed the three-point play.
Alberts finished with 12 points. He landed two triples and muscled a couple of jump-hooks.
Delorme was quiet early in the second half but going again late to grab the team lead in points with 18.
Keyson Littlewind added some strong defense and eight points off the bench.
With another two-point game Saturday, this time against May-Port-C-G, Smith said he thinks the quick turnaround between games will be good for the team. The Indians’ six-game stretch of region games will be completed in a 14-day span.
“It was a week and a half off from Kindred to Thompson,” Smith said. “Now it’s going to be usually one or two … which is going to be nice for us.”
FW/M hosts May-Port-C-G at roughly 2:30 p.m. Saturday, following a presentation for Smith to honor his 500th win.
