Wins have been hard to come by for the Lake Region State College men’s basketball team. It has talented players, and has put together stretches of success, but it’s struggled to channel it all into one cohesive performance. It was a laborious, frustrating seven-game losing streak for the Royals, who went nearly a month without winning a game.
But on Sunday, it finally happened.
“It feels like a weight off my shoulders,” head coach Jared Marshall said. “I can only imagine what it feels off theirs.”
The Royals (7-17, 3-12) started off strong like they have many times this season, and they let the lead slip away like they’ve also done on a handful of occasions. But they were extra resilient this time, and rode a strong second half to beat Dakota College at Bottineau (14-10, 6-9) by a score of 82-67 at Devils Lake Sports Center.
“We cleaned up the turnovers. We controlled the boards,” Marshall said. “And we had some guys step up today. I mean, Matt [Mudingay] and Alvin [Jones Jr.] were just great on defense.”
The Royals outrebounded the Lumberjacks 50-33, with Blessed Barhayiga and Harrison Raynor both reaching double digits. Barhayiga had a double-double, as his 18 points led LRSC’s scoring. Rihards Poreietis stepped up with 17 points off the bench.
“We’re working on taking care of the ball more, making sure we get more rebounds on the floor,” Barhayiga said. “We’re just losing off the same things, but we’re starting to clean up. We know what we gotta do. We’re all on the same page trying to get it done.”
Bottineau’s pesky, athletic ball handlers, Brendan Redhead and Phil Gibaut, helped put the Jacks up 10-5 to start. But threes by Mudingay and Noah Bonick gave LRSC the lead, and the Royals rode a 15-0 run to go up 20-10. Barhayiga, Porietis and Jordan Willis all contributed to the attack.
“We’ve been a pretty strong starting team. We always come out pretty well,” Marshall said. “It’s just sustaining that the rest of the way.”
And in the middle of the first half, it looked like it might just be the same old story: an early lead, and a blown opportunity. The Jacks scored seven straight points to trim the Royals’ lead to three, then kept it close before Redhead swished a go-ahead three. Redhead, despite having blond hair, led Bottineau’s scoring with 19 points in the game. Max Groom, who scored 15 total points, added another three to go back-to-back with Redhead.
The Jacks led, 27-23.
“They’re a good team. They’re gonna make runs,” Marshall said. “They’re too good of a team to not make runs.”
During a timeout with 5:29 to go in the first half, the Royals had a chance to reset and try to conjure up their own run.
And it seemed that after that timeout, whatever Marshall said or did to motivate the team worked. Perhaps it was just a needed rest, or a chance for the Royals to remember what they’ve been working on. But they came out of the timeout with more energy, playing more like they did in that 15-0 run.
“Coach didn’t say much; he said we know what we need to do, we just gotta go out and do it,” Barhayiga said. “We work hard, practice on it every day. We just gotta execute it. That’s really the biggest thing right now is just executing what we take in practice.”
After a basket by Raynor, Drew Bordeaux swished a go-ahead three back in the Royals’ favor. Bottineau countered with another lead-changing three of its own, but LRSC outscored the Jacks 9-4 for the rest of the half. Barhayiga tied it at 30, Ginuwine Tropnas had a go-ahead dunk, and the Royals led 37-34 at halftime.
A mid-game lead — but as the Royals know all too well, not a victory just yet.
Groom hit a game-tying three within seconds of the final half starting. The early minutes had the feeling of another barnburner that would come down to the final possessions.
The Royals had other ideas.
A basket by Bordeaux extended all the way into an 18-0 run, where everything worked in flawless sync for LRSC. For this stretch of scoring, the Royals played their best basketball of the season. And it changed the game entirely, going from a tie to an 18-point rout.
“We were guarding. We made every shot difficult. They didn’t get second chances,” Marshall said. “And then we were just scoring in a variety of ways… We were just unselfish in that stretch, and we were making some pretty good decisions.”
Barhayiga was part of the party with four points, but Marshall also credited his ability to get a pass out to the corner while being triple-teamed by Bottineau. Bordeaux and Porietis each had threes in the stretch. Porietis, who came in only averaging about five points a game, finished with a trio of three-pointers.
“Our bench has been struggling to score at times,” Marshall said. “Rihards has given us some good points driving to the hoop, and that’s kind of where he’s at, but he’s been struggling to score from three, and finally he hit a couple. And I think a little bit of a weight came off his shoulders too. He started feeling it and making some threes.”
It was fairly even the rest of the way, but LRSC had already built up more than enough of a lead to finish comfortably. The Royals made 13-of-14 free throws down the stretch to maintain their sizable advantage, and they won by 15.
“I’m glad to see we finally got a win,” Barhayiga said. “Stringing along, they’ve been close all year, but finally pulled one out of the gates. So that’s good, and hopefully we keep this going on further into more games. We got teams that we should beat along the way. So try to have this turnaround start right here.”
The Royals have six games remaining in the season. They’re currently in last place in the Mon-Dak Athletic Conference, but they’re only half a game behind seventh-place Bismarck State College, 1.5 games behind sixth-place Williston State College and three games behind the fifth-place Jacks.
“Our big message is we still have stuff to play for,” Marshall said. “Maybe we’re not gonna win the conference, but guys are still playing to try and get four-year scholarships. We’re still playing for seeding. We can still move up and down. Hosting a home playoff game is a long shot, but we can still make some moves and help ourselves by who we’re gonna play and things like that… The season’s not over for us. We can make a run. And hopefully this is the building block of it.”
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.
