DEVILS LAKE — The Royals are having to make the most out of their limited roster.
The Lake Region State College women’s basketball team only had nine players to begin with. But three of them are on the bench with injuries — including Elizabeth Kisolo, who has to undergo season-ending surgery on her leg.
“Super tough to hear that,” Royals head coach Colden Hutton said. “But the best part about it is she’s still a part of our team. She still gets to be on the bench, go on the road trips, all that stuff… Definitely tough for her, but I’m excited to see what she can do on the recovery, but then also next year when we find her a school to go and excel at.”
Hutton said he’s hoping Morgan Leas and Brinly Gregory will be back by Sunday. But the six players LRSC did have on Wednesday all brought contributions, leading to a 71-46 win over Jamestown JV. It ended a four-game losing streak for the Royals (6-7), who had beaten this same Jimmies team 84-79 on Nov. 18.
“We knew coming in that it was a game that we’ve gotta win,” Hutton said. “We handled our business.”
Sophomores Nicole Lillard and Arden Faulkner led LRSC with 20 and 17 points, respectively. They each hit a trio of three-pointers.
“We did good on having extra passes,” Lillard said. “Our three-point percentage was way better than it usually is, because we actually made the extra pass and we pushed it well in transition.”
The Royals trailed 9-7 out of the gates after some back and forth. But they sprung ahead with a 9-0 run and never looked back.
LRSC still took some time to find its rhythm from the three-point line, and the lead was trimmed to 16-13. But Sydney Schwabe ended that drought, and Lillard got a layup in right before the buzzer of the first quarter. It ended the period on a 7-0 run that extended into 9-0 in the second quarter.
Lara Graham swished a triple that made the lead as large as 34-19. Jamestown knocked down a couple threes of its own, but LRSC went into the halftime break with a comfortable 42-26 advantage. Each of the Royals’ six players had at least six points, while Faulkner led the way with nine.
“Our offense gives us the opportunity to all move around well and get open layups and shots,” Lillard said, “to give us the opportunity to all do what we do best.”
Faulkner hit two threes in the third quarter, while Lillard also hit one more and had eight points in the quarter. Graham joined the threes party too. The Royals made nine threes total.
“All of our players that come in and play are great,” Hutton said. “And the best thing about our group is we share the ball, we play together, and that’s something that every coach wants to have. Not all teams have that, but we have that.”
Lillard recorded two triples in the fourth quarter as LRSC cruised to victory. Each of the six Royals had at least seven points. It was actually Sydney Schwabe, LRSC’s leading scorer this year, who had the fewest points. She had an off-night, shooting just 3-of-9 and 1-of-6 from the three-point line.
LRSC shot 36.5% overall.
“The better we can shoot it, the better we are,” Hutton said.
Lillard is averaging 10.8 points and 5.9 rebounds per game in her sophomore year. She had the most playing time among the returners from last year’s team, and she’s been running with the opportunity to start this year. Her intent is to get recruited by a four-year school.
“The goal is for sure D-I,” Lillard said. “But if not, I just want to play at the next level. I want to play basketball as long as I can, basically.”
Not only did the win on Wednesday end a losing streak, but it followed the Royals’ worst loss of the season thus far. Before Nov. 30, they were yet to lose a game by more than 11 points. But they fell 72-40 to Casper College in Wyoming on the last day of November, and they bounced back with their second-largest margin of victory this season.
“Honestly, I didn’t know how we were gonna respond,” Hutton said. “The first time we kind of got smacked a little bit. Casper beat us pretty good. We’ve been in every other game that we’ve lost, but Casper kind of took it to us. And I thought our girls responded well. It’s great to go in there and be able to cheer and clap it up when we get the dubs.”
The game, which was just LRSC’s second home contest of the season, came ahead of another home game on Sunday.
