MAYVILLE — The rock of Four Winds/Minnewaukan has been Deng Deng.
He’s the superstar that’s carried this team through its triumphs. The Indians finished the regular season ranked No. 3 in their first season playing in Division A, and they simply wouldn’t have done it without his efforts.
But in Thursday’s third-place game against Grafton, the Spoilers finally cracked his code.
Deng was held to 13 points — and only five in the first half — leading to FW/M’s elimination from the 2023-24 season. The Indians lucked into a brutal draw, having to face No. 4 Devils Lake in their first game and No. 2 Grafton in their second. FW/M (17-6, 8-2) fell 70-62 to Grafton (19-4, 9-2) at Mayville State University.
An offensive explosion for Deng got the Indians started — not Deng Deng, mind you, but his younger brother, Marial Deng. He scored the first 10 points for FW/M, giving the squad an early 10-4 lead. He made two three-pointers during the stretch.
Grafton made a pair of threes of its own, holding the deficit at three. The Spoilers were pressuring D. Deng hard, and he airballed a couple three-point attempts as he struggled to find openings.
A reverse layup for Reggie Rice made it a one-point game, and another layup put Grafton up 15-14 at the end of the first quarter.
Deng didn’t score a single point in the quarter. Marial had the first 10 but nothing after that.
The Spoilers played with a quicker and peskier style than the Indians. They consistently found ways to get to the basket, while the Indians could only do so much to compensate for Deng’s absence in the points column.
Deng’s first point came on a free throw at 6:05 in the second quarter with the Indians trailing 24-16. They got it all the way back to 24-22 after a three by Dalen Leftbear, but Grafton responded with five straight.
Deng made two more free throws to make it 29-24, and he finally found the rim for his first field goal at 2:56. The Spoilers still rattled off five more at the end of the first half to go into halftime with a 36-28 lead.
It wasn’t over yet, but the Indians badly needed Deng to get going if they wanted to win this game. Five points and only one field goal in a half sticks out like a sore thumb for a guy who the team can often expect 30-plus points from.
And in the third quarter, he slowly started to find that groove. He pulled off his signature drive and layup, then responded to a Grafton three with one of his own. FW/M pulled the gap back to 40-37.
But fouls started to haunt Deng’s evening. He committed his fourth of the game with his team down 44-38 — but head coach Rick Smith kept him in, because the Indians were going to need every second they could possibly get out of him.
Dorvan McKay swished a three to cut Grafton’s lead to 44-41. After a shot by Deng, Ronald McKay snuck in a layup to make it a one-point game at 46-45.
Down 48-45, Leftbear missed a potential game-tying three. He stole the ball and made a layup on the last play of the quarter to get the Indians back within one. They trailed 48-47 with eight minutes to play. Deng collected eight points in the third quarter.
D. McKay missed a potential go-ahead shot to start the fourth quarter, and Grafton immediately hit a three to put FW/M back on its heels. At 6:21 in the quarter, the Indians’ worst nightmare came to fruition: Deng fouled out. His basketball career was over.
The Indians played with a fire under them, the kind of energy that let everybody in the gym know they weren’t going to let this setback ruin them. Back-to-back shots got them within 53-51. But Braylon Baldwin hit his second three of the quarter for Grafton.
M. Deng nabbed a rebound of a missed three, and he got back in the points column with back-to-back shots. He hadn’t scored since his initial 10 points to start the game. The deficit was as close as 56-55.
Leftbear’s second three of the game kept FW/M in it at 60-58. But the Indians kept sending the Spoilers to the free throw line, and they could never quite erase the narrow gap that had been ailing them for most of the contest. Grafton made eight free throws to finish the game, beating the Indians by eight and dashing their dreams of glory.
It was, no doubt, a painful loss for FW/M and its fans. The Indians, in their first season in Division A, arguably couldn’t have gotten an unluckier playoff draw. And they ultimately got the short end of a competitive stick.
Deng still received the Region 2 Senior Player of the Year award after the region championship contest, which Devils Lake won. He was far and away the best player in the region, senior or not.
And in a perfect world, he would have gone out with more fanfare. But he and his team put up an admiral effort in the first year of their promotion, and Deng had an individual season that will be remembered long after the conclusion of his football career at the University of North Dakota.
That’s the way it goes sometimes. Grafton will get a state qualifier bid instead of FW/M, competing for a chance in the state tournament on Saturday at Scheels Center in Fargo.
