Ryan Clark’s lady-Royals squad hasn’t always won in the prettiest fashion. As a defensive-minded team, shooting has been Lake Region State College’s downfall whenever it goes through a slump.
But the Royals have been winning lately, and Sunday afternoon’s contest at Devils Lake Sports Center was no exception. Despite an ugly start on the shooting end, and trailing for most of the first half, LRSC (16-8, 9-6) managed to pull out a 68-57 win over Dakota College at Bottineau (11-13, 5-10). It was their 13th win in their last 15 games.
“It’s a weird feeling, because obviously you want to play better,” Clark said. “I’m not so much a result-driven guy. I’m a process-driven guy. And I don’t think the process today was good enough to get the result which we got. We got the result thankfully and made some plays when we needed to, but definitely need to take a step forward.”
The Royals were facing a Lumberjacks team that only had eight players on its roster, and only six who actually showed up. Their tallest and best player, 6-foot-3 Hanna Plumbtree, was the lone player on the bench to start.
But despite an obvious numbers advantage, the Royals were sluggish out of the gate. Kelsey Crossan had the first three points for LRSC, but a 9-0 run for Bottineau — fueled by five free throws — put the Royals in an 11-3 hole.
“Warmups was good. Everyone was happy. But I feel like we were just finding it hard to get in our groove,” Crossan said. “I don’t necessarily think anything was going wrong; anything just wasn’t going right. I think a lot of it was just energy and just being ready to play, having our heads in the game.”
The Jacks were struggling to get clean shots in their own right, and they weren’t capitalizing on all their rebounds. But they were managing to steal the ball, get it back down the court and induce fouls. On the Royals’ side, their shots were going all over the place and they weren’t securing the rebounds.
They had a period of roughly five minutes where they didn’t score.
“A car has six engines; I don’t think we really got out of third gear,” Clark said. “And all the rebounds that we gave up, some sloppy fouls, things like that. We just never really put our foot down and got ourselves going.”
Morgan Leas got the Royals back in the points column, and a three by Tiyahna Trottier put some momentum back in the tank. But LRSC still had work to do after the first quarter, trailing 16-11.
Natalie DeCoteau, back in the mix after missing three games due to back pain, got the scoring started for LRSC in the second quarter. Her basket came with the Royals facing their largest deficit all game: 20-11.
Despite continuing to struggle finding a rhythm in the early minutes of the quarter, the Royals slowly crawled their way back into it. Nicole Lillard shot a three that cut the deficit to 24-19. Crossan contributed three points on a field goal and a free throw, and Lillard put up another three to make it a two-point game at 27-25.
“I think Nicole Lillard, and Anisah Wolf sometimes, are probably the most underappreciated players on our team,” Clark said. “They always show up. They always do things the right way to defend… I don’t think Nicole ever has a bad game. She just shows up and does her job.”
Lillard finished with 11 points, while Wolf had 10. And it was Wolf’s shot that tied the game back up for the Royals late in the second quarter. They’d been trailing ever since relinquishing a 3-2 lead at the very start of the game. It was a brand new basketball game, knotted up at 27 apiece.
Bottineau still went into the halftime break with a 30-29 lead.
Scoring became more abundant for LRSC in the second half. Trottier made a pair of free throws that put the Royals up 33-32, and Crossan added two free throws of her own. They had a stretch where nine of their last 11 points came on free throws — a gift they’ll certainly take from Bottineau.
The Jacks managed to stay in it and take a 40-39 lead, but a free throw by Crossan tied it up, and two free throws by Lillard put the Royals back in front. They never trailed after that.
Crossan wrapped up the third quarter with two more baskets, and LRSC led 50-45 with a quarter to play.
“I’m happy, definitely, with the way we came out at halftime,” Crossan said. “We were more together. I think a lot of it was positive attitudes. And just bringing the energy on the bench, and on the court as well.”
Crossan had one more basket in the fourth quarter and finished with 19 points overall, along with nine rebounds (seven defensive).
“I really liked getting my points from the assists the girls were giving. I think a lot of it came from just passing the ball around,” Crossan said. “And it was good to get 19. I almost had a double-double; it was 19 and nine, which is so close.”
The Royals outscored the Jacks 18-12 in the final quarter and ended up winning by a comfortable 11. Plumbtree scored nine for Bottineau in the quarter and was by far the team’s leading scorer with 22. The Jacks made only nine of their 36 field goal attempts (25%) in the second half.
Trottier finished with 12 points for LRSC. Kyla Fitzgerald, while not having her best game overall, swished a pair of threes in the fourth quarter after missing her previous three attempts.
It was a gutsy win for the Royals, who didn’t play their best and didn’t have everything go their way. It was still a win in the end, keeping this success streak alive.
“I think when you’re on such a win streak, sometimes it’s hard to keep in reality and realize that it’s really just who shows up ready to play that given day,” Crossan said. “And I think we’re getting really good at just showing up and not letting history of wins and losses affect how we play.”
Improved shooting was a key factor for LRSC in the second half, making 48% of its field goals after just 28.2% in the first. The Royals have scored the third-lowest points per game in the Mon-Dak Athletic Conference with 62.1, yet they’re in third place overall.
“I’d say one thing to help us out a little more is trying to push the pace, play a little faster,” Clark said. “Like in transition, when we get that going, seems to be at our best. So we gotta try to push the players to play faster and get some easy ones in transition.”
The Royals will now hit the road again for three straight games out of town. Their next opponent is first-place Williston State College (20-3, 13-1), who they recently beat at home by nine points. Tip-off is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 5:30 p.m.
Joseph “Mojo” Hill is a reporter covering Lake Region sports for the Devils Lake Journal. Contact him on Twitter @mojohill22 or at jhill@devilslakejournal.com for any tips, questions or story ideas.
