Right from the first quarter, Devils Lake was chippy with the refs about foul calls.
The Firebirds committed eight fouls in the first quarter, including two by their star player, Wylee Delorme. Neither Delorme nor head coach Dustin Brodina appeared pleased by the decisions.
And it cost them. Playing a rematch on the road against No. 4 Grafton (14-3, 6-2), No. 2 Devils Lake (16-2, 5-2) couldn’t repeat the magic act it pulled off in Jan. 11’s triumphant thriller. The Firebirds led after each of the first two quarters, and were only down by two at the end of the third quarter. But their foul troubles — justified or not — caught up with them, and the Spoilers’ robotically consistent shooting led to Devils Lake’s first loss of the calendar year.
“I thought the refs did a great job of taking us out of the game,” Brodina said. “Honestly, I don’t really complain about the refs, but the fouls were 29 to 11 today. And that’s just uncalled for, in my opinion. We’re bringing the ball to the rack pretty hard the same as they are.”
Grafton ended up winning 82-73 on Tuesday, ending Devils Lake’s 13-game winning streak. The Firebirds hadn’t lost since Dec. 21 against Four Winds/Minnewaukan, when Deng Deng returned from injury.
It was a competitive game early on, as one might expect after their previous matchup became one of the most memorable contests played in the Lake Region this season. Joel Nelson and Beau Brodina were the early stars for the Firebirds, each hitting a go-ahead three. Devils Lake led 11-9.
Grafton got it back to 13-13, but Brodina swished another go-ahead three. Brodina typically makes more of an impact on the guarding side of things, but he had the look in his eyes of somebody who wanted to beat this tough Grafton team for the second time.
Delorme committed a foul that allowed Braylon Baldwin to shoot three straight free throws and tie the game. And then the grumbling began. Grafton’s final nine points of the first quarter all came on free throws. Brodina took initiative, telling the players on the bench, “You guys gotta get ready to go because we don’t have enough fouls left.”
Still, Delorme swished a go-ahead three of his own. The Firebirds weren’t going to concede just because some calls didn’t go their way. When the first quarter was over, Devils Lake was leading by a marginal 25-22.
“All the guys have great effort,” Brodina said. “We just gotta know what we’re doing.”
A three by Juan Villareal tied it at 27-27, but Nelson shot his second go-ahead three. Nelson was unquestionably Devils Lake’s player of the game with 25 points overall. He was the only Firebird with at least one field goal in every quarter.
“Joel gives a hard effort every single game,” Brodina said. “There’s gonna be no second-guessing his effort.”
Delorme, who committed two more personal fouls in the second quarter, was also charged with a technical. With the Firebirds leading 32-27, Grafton’s Ryan Hanson only made one of his four free throw attempts on a wide-open basket. Devils Lake was able to steal the ball a couple times down the stretch, and Reggie Rice missed an open three for Grafton in the final seconds of the quarter.
Despite an imperfect performance, the Firebirds were leading 43-35 at halftime.
Nelson made another three that gave Devils Lake its largest lead of the game at 46-37 in the third quarter. But something snapped into place for Grafton, some sense of urgency that lit a fire under the team’s shooters. The Spoilers made five consecutive three-pointers, including two by Villareal. That lead Devils Lake was holding onto for so long quickly shrunk, then dissipated and turned itself inside out with Grafton now leading 54-52.
“Our shots weren’t falling and theirs were,” Brodina said. “There’s some nights that that happens. And we gotta be able to figure that out, compensate for our not-good shooting.”
Devils Lake struggled to counter during that stretch of threes. Nelson was fouled after getting a rebound and briefly tied it back up on a pair of free throws. But a basket on the last possession gave Grafton a 56-54 lead at the end of the third quarter. The Firebirds reduced their fouls to only three in the quarter, but now they had an even ghastlier beast to deal with: the Spoilers’ shooters.
With Devils Lake’s winning streak riding on this final quarter, Brodina gave a quick and snappy pep talk on the sideline. The Firebirds were only down two. They’d played a barnburner against this same team before and come out victorious. They were absolutely still in this. Brodina told the team to make smart decisions and attack the basket.
It was all or nothing in the final eight minutes.
Delorme, who sat out the third quarter, returned in the fourth. But he was unable to get into a groove and didn’t manage to score any points. Early threes by Brody Lillemoen widened the Spoilers’ lead, and Devils Lake could never catch up.
The Firebirds struggled with fouls again in the fourth quarter. A few of them were intentional to keep their chances alive in the final minutes of the game, but even still, their 11 fouls in the quarter hurt them in the end. And the Spoilers refused to miss when they were brought to the free throw line. Sixteen of Grafton’s final 18 points came on free throws. Parker Brodina fouled out of the game.
“I’m gonna have to look at the tape. We might have to look at some things defensively, what we’re doing,” Brodina said. “Obviously we must be out of position if we’re fouling that much.”
A matchup that ended so heroically last time came to a withering halt this time around. For the first time in nearly two months, the Devils Lake boys’ basketball team lost a game.
“You learn a lot from losses,” Brodina said. “You don’t learn much from blowing teams out. You learn what we gotta do better. We gotta get back to work tomorrow, and it’s gotta be better. We gotta be better in every facet of the basketball game, rebounding to playing defense.”
This might not be the last battle in the newfound Devils Lake-Grafton rivalry either; they could match up again in postseason play. The Firebirds could face the Spoilers or the similarly tough Four Winds/Minnewaukan in the semifinals of the Region 2 tournament.
Given how their first two go-rounds with Grafton have gone, it’s likely to be another tough hurdle on their path to the state tournament.
“They’re tough because they don’t turn the ball over at all. And they’ve got good guards that handle the ball the whole time,” Brodina said. “So you can’t make any mistakes, and they’ll take advantage of it.”
Devils Lake has three games left in the regular season, starting with Wahpeton on the road Friday at 3 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.
