DEVILS LAKE — Moments after the Lady Indians had been eliminated from the postseason, head coach Sean Gourd Sr.’s main emotion was gratitude.
Three Four Winds/Minnewaukan seniors — Cailee Hanson, Dru Longie and Gracie Jackson — played their last high school basketball game on Thursday.
“We had three seniors that finished the season, stuck it out,” Gourd Sr. said. “Very appreciative that they brought the leadership and they led us this year.”
The Indians lost to Devils Lake in the Region 2 third-place game, 56-44, at the Devils Lake Sports Center.
“We weren’t expected to win this game,” Gourd Sr. said. “But we still played hard till the very end. And that’s all I can ask for. As long as they play hard, I’ll take it.”
They finished the season 16-8.
While it ended Thursday, it was a notable turnaround from last year’s 5-17 mark.
“Last year was a tough year,” Gourd Sr. said. “It was probably my worst year as a coach. My 10 years coaching, I think I’ve only had two losing seasons. Last year was one of them. And to go from five wins to 16 wins this year, that’s amazing.”
FW/M started this season 8-1. Sophomore Suri Gourd, daughter of Gourd Sr., had a 48-point game in a region win over Grafton. Along with Hanson and Longie providing scoring boosts, the Indians had an explosive offense early in the season.
Their campaign took a little bit of a slide when they got to tougher competition. They were held to 33 points in a loss to Carrington. They lost games that were within reach to Watford City, Rugby and Thompson.
FW/M still put up a winning record in region play, 8-6, to get the No. 4 out of 8 seeds.
“They worked hard. They did,” Gourd Sr. said. “We weren’t picked very high this year; we were picked maybe six or seven in the region. But it was a good year.”
Gourd, who surpassed 1,000 career points as a freshman, had a big sophomore year. She averaged more than 25 points a game and earned all-region honors. She also surpassed the 1,500-point threshold with games to spare.
She — and the rest of the team — were able to avoid injury, unlike last year.
Hanson made a strong second scorer, too, to join Gourd on the all-region team.
The Indians still have a lot of youth. Freshmen Sophia Alberts and Patience Dunn have already cracked the starting lineup. So has sophomore Stella Dubois. And Gourd still has two more years of high school ball.
Gourd Sr. left the Devils Lake Sports Center on Thursday feeling optimistic about his program’s future.
“We’ve got a good group of freshmen, sophomores and a couple of good juniors coming back for next year,” he said. “We can do some good things next year. We could do some great things. We’ve got to stick together. We’ve got Suri; she’s going to be a junior now. And we’ve got a good couple sophomores, good couple freshmen, and again, a good couple juniors that are going to help us out.
“It happens, you know? But we’ve just got to try to get better over the summer.”
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