MAYVILLE — The Devils Lake boys’ basketball team is headed to the state tournament.
The Firebirds (22-2, 6-2) won the Region 2 tournament on Thursday, beating Thompson (13-11, 4-6) 73-64 at Mayville State University. The Tommies had a merely pedestrian regular season in a tough region, but they’ve been playing their best basketball of late and beat Grafton to get to the region final.
“It’s exciting. Thompson’s playing fantastic basketball right now,” head coach Dustin Brodina said. “Squeezing a win away from them is really good.”
The Firebirds didn’t gel offensively right away, but their defense limited Thompson to only six points in the first quarter. Drew Hofstad made the first five points of the game — a 5-0 lead that was squeezed to 5-4 after four straight points by Drew Overby. But a three-pointer by Parker Brodina capped a 9-0 run, and Devils Lake led 14-6 at the end of the first quarter.
Overby had a three that cut the lead to 16-11 in the second quarter, but Wylee Delorme responded with a three of his own.
“We knew they were gonna come out firing and playing good defense,” Delorme said. “We just had to build from that.”
Mason Palmer, a strong shooter who often contributes off the bench for Devils Lake, hit a three to give the team a 24-15 lead. But the Tommies were peskier in the second quarter, and trimmed the lead to 27-25 after a Devils Lake turnover.
Brayden Wolfgram made back-to-back threes at the end of the first half to complete a 10-0 Thompson run. The first three put the Tommies ahead, and the second three gave them a four-point lead at halftime.
“They’re just battling. They’re offensive-rebounding,” Brodina said of the Tommies. “They’re playing extreme team basketball… They’re gonna be a tough beat from here on out.”
Overby was particularly strong, scoring 11 points in the first half. Woflgram had eight, while Gavin Krogstad had six. Brodina was limited to no points outside of his three-pointer, and no Firebird had more than seven.
“We weren’t playing hard enough,” Delorme said. “We were just underperforming as a team.”
But this is a situation Devils Lake had found itself in recently: down at halftime to an underdog Thompson team.
The Firebirds rattled off four straight baskets in the third quarter — two by Beau Brodina, and one by each of Joel Nelson and Palmer. Thompson didn’t score until the 4:05 mark, with Devils Lake leading 35-31.
“At halftime, we came out trying to move the ball around and find the holes,” Palmer said. “And we scored some baskets.”
Delorme and Palmer hit back-to-back threes, widening the gap to 41-33. They ended up finishing with 22 and 20 points, respectively. Palmer is a shining example of the depth this Devils Lake team possesses.
“It’s hard to really guard all seven of us that can come off the bench,” Palmer said.
Palmer took two athletic routes to the basket early in the fourth quarter, stretching the lead some more to 53-41. Though not a starter, Palmer is a valuable asset that this team can mix in when it needs scoring help.
“He’s a fantastic player,” Brodina said. “He stepped up huge tonight and made some big baskets. They were huge baskets that he made down the stretch. And that’s kind of been our motto: One guy will step up one night, and another guy will step up another night.”
The teams went back and forth for much of the fourth quarter. Thompson still refused to go down without a fight, and brought the margin back to 64-59 after back-to-back threes. But Devils Lake made 16 free throws in the quarter to pull away. B. Brodina also had a wide-open layup, scoring the Firebirds’ last field goal of the game to bring the lead up to nine.
“We buckled down,” D. Brodina said. “I told the guys, ‘We just kind of got lost in there.’ That bad offense led to us not playing defense on the other end, and we can’t let that get to us.”
It was a nine-point win in the end over a tough but beatable Thompson team. It secured the region championship for a Devils Lake team that entered the tournament as the No. 3 seed. Delorme, P. Brodina and Nelson were named to the All-Region 2 team in the ceremony after the game.
Devils Lake now earns an automatic bid to the state tournament. The Firebirds will get a bit of a rest before traveling to the Fargodome on Thursday for their best attempt at replicating what the girls’ team did.
“We take a few days off, get our legs back together, and then refocus on what got us here,” Brodina said. “Not doing anything fancy. Keep it simple and work hard at practice; get back to practice, get some really good practices in and show up in Fargo.”
