The Four Winds/Minnewaukan Indians pose for a team photo after taking fifth place at the 2026 Division A boys’ basketball state tournament. (Photo by Mojo Hill)
FARGO — Saturday brought a lot of “lasts” for Four Winds and Minnewaukan.
It was the last game of the schools’ basketball co-op, which had been in effect since 2010.
It was the last high school basketball game for five Indians seniors, including future UND football player Marial Deng.
“This is just a little tiny phase of their life, you know?” FW/M head coach Rick Smith said. “And it’s a fun one. No doubt about it. If you’re a high school basketball player, it’s a fun phase in your life. … And it’s memories they get to keep. It’s memories they’ll get to talk about with their family and friends. Now it’s time for those guys to think about the last two months of high school and graduate. … When they walk across that stage, then the challenges are going to come. And hopefully I prepared them a little bit for discipline and hard work, and hopefully they can use that in their everyday life.”
It was also the last game for Four Winds at the Division A level, at least for now.
Four Winds, when it becomes a standalone team next season, will be going down to Division B.
“We’re way underneath the enrollment number now,” Smith said. “But who knows if we’re gonna stay down there? If our enrollment will go up, go down, go up, go down? So who knows? We could be back in a few years. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
Minnewaukan will form a co-op with Warwick next season.
The last ever FW/M basketball team won 65-58 over Wahpeton (20-8) in the state fifth-place game on Saturday at the Fargodome. It avenged a 76-56 loss from December.
“It’s the first time I ever got a W over Wahpeton,” Smith said with a grin. “Which was nice, ‘cause Coach [Jeff] Ralph, he’s a tough one to beat.”
The Indians ended up grabbing two wins during their first ever trip to a Division A state tournament. Their final season record was 24-4.
Keyson Littlewind scored at least four points in each quarter and had a team-high 18 overall off the bench.
The Indians never trailed in the first half.
“We couldn’t come out and get smacked in the face like we did against Shiloh in that first game,” Smith said. “We had to match their intensity right from the get-go. And I thought we did that.”
They held a narrow 26-25 lead at halftime. Jonte Delorme banked in a three at the buzzer, but it was ruled a non-shot by the officials.
“You’ve got to wave that off and forget about it,” Smith said.
Treyton King promptly opened the second half with a go-ahead triple for Wahpeton.
It turned out to be the Huskies’ only field goal of the third quarter. They made three free throws but were otherwise shut down for the rest of the period.
“I thought Tyler Black played tremendous on the defensive end,” Smith said. “There was a stretch in that second quarter where they were getting downhill with their man-to-man, and getting to the rim. And then we decided to switch to the zone, which kind of bailed us out the whole dang weekend. And we get really aggressive with that, especially with Keyson out there in the point.”
FW/M led by as many as 15 after a three by Joran Lohnes and, fittingly, a step-back three by Delorme before the buzzer of the third quarter.
Wahpeton’s offense finally awoke in the fourth quarter. Brayden Steffens and Jack Gilbertson combined for 21 points in the final period, trimming FW/M’s lead as tight as 59-58. A turnover in the final 30 seconds of the game allowed the Huskies to score four points in 6.2 seconds of game time.
Gilbertson and Steffens scored 23 and 19, respectively, on the afternoon.
“Wahpeton is not going to give up,” Smith said. “That’s what I told them when the fourth quarter started … That team has all the fight in the world. And Coach Ralph ain’t gonna let them give up.”
Successful free throws from Lohnes, Deng and Delorme allowed FW/M to hang on and end the season with a victory.
Delorme scored 13 points in his final high school basketball game.
Deng scored eight. He finished his basketball career with 1,034 points.
The Indians can head back to the Spirit Lake Reservation with their heads held high on a strong season.
“We beat every team in the state that’s here,” Smith said. “So that’s something to hang our hats on a little bit. We battled the best teams in the state all year long. And losing four times to four very, very good teams, i’s nothing to hang your head about. I’m proud of what we did. I’m proud of what we accomplished. Everybody in their high school career wants to play in that championship game, but not everybody gets to. But not everybody gets to the state tournament, neither. You’ve got eight teams that get here, and we were one of them. And we got two wins out of it. So it’s something to be proud of with our program.”
