DEVILS LAKE — Both of Lake Region State College’s basketball took losses to Williston State College on Monday. It wrapped up a 1-1 initial homestand for each team to kick off the new year.
The women’s team (10-10, 3-1) fell 63-50 to a tough Tetons team (17-2, 2-0). The Royals nearly matched WSC in rebounds and found open looks, but they shot just 24.7% and went only 3-of-36 from three-point range.
“The woes of basketball, right?” LRSC women’s head coach Colden Hutton said. “I liked our looks. We did a really good job today of sharing the basketball, making that extra pass. We had good looks. We just couldn’t convert on them.”
The men’s team (10-10, 2-2) faced similar shooting problems, shooting 34.6% overall and going just 2-of-24 from three and 11-of-24 from the free throw line. It lost 90-69 to WSC (15-4, 3-0).
“I thought our defense was pretty good,” LRSC men’s head coach Jared Marshall said. “It just couldn’t withstand us not helping it out by getting some easy buckets, us getting out in transition, things like that. And that cost us.”
Hutton said on Sunday that he expected his group of seven to be tired on Monday. And he was right.
“We were definitely tired,” Hutton said. “I mean, they woke up hurting today. Bodies hurting.”
The Royals stayed in it during the first few minutes. Arden Faulker hit a game-tying three, and Sydney Schwabe grabbed an offensive rebound and put LRSC on top 5-3.
WSC tied it, then went ahead on two successful free throws. Less than three minutes into the game, Faulkner was charged a foul. She and Hutton both argued the call, and the ref wasted little time calling a technical foul on Faulkner. Hutton was more vocal and animated between the two of them, but Faulkner said something indecipherable as she headed to the bench. The ref announced that it was “unsportsmanlike conduct.”
The Tetons ran their lead up to 11-5 after the debacle.
“We grow and we learn from it,” Hutton said.
Faulkner already had three fouls, so she sat for the rest of the half.
The Royals cut their deficit to 11-9 after free throws by Nicole Lillard and a basket by Jenna Tierney. But WSC gradually extended its lead as the half wore on, and had a seven-point advantage at the end of the first quarter.
LRSC got decent looks and did a solid job rebounding, but it struggled to convert on opportunities. The Royals landed just 1-of-20 three-point attempts in the first half, and went 7-of-13 from the free throw line. They actually outrebounded the Tetons 31-29.
After getting a chance to rest up at halftime, the Royals played a slightly better third quarter. It took them nearly three minutes to score, and WSC landed two threes right away. But LRSC cut the deficit to 13, fueled by nine points in the quarter by Tierney.
Tierney had been quiet lately, with only two points on Sunday and two points in the first half of Monday’s game.
“She found her driving angles,” Hutton said. “It’s a patient game. There were teams that were taking her away the past couple weeks. So that’s kind of what basketball is.”
LRSC stayed within 11 points for much of the fourth quarter. Lara Graham provided a spark off the bench, scoring nine in the quarter to give her 10 points overall.
A three-pointer for WSC essentially put the game away at 60-45. But after a rough second quarter, the Royals kept it reasonably close until the end.
“I’m proud of how we fought through,” Hutton said. “We gave a team that just beat Science by 30 a game, and had it down to the wire at times. I’m just proud of how we competed.”
Then the men, who were already without Poet Davis to a knee injury, lost Bronson Chambers to an ankle issue. They started Josh Miller as their fifth guy.
“The Josh start was more of a matchup,” Marshall said. “Because, certainly, Ron [Lee] earned it with the way he played last night. But they bring some more athletic guards off the bench.”
Miller immediately airballed a three. WSC also had a couple of wild three-ball attempts, but it landed one at 18:32 for the game’s first points.
LRSC trailed 4-0 before finally scoring over three minutes in. The Tetons led 9-2 after another three.
Ginuwine Tropnas dunked, and Lee made his first of four buckets in the half off the bench. A 7-0 run still propelled WSC ahead 18-6. The Tetons found quick, athletic moves to the rim, then swished a three as the kicker.
“I’m not trying to take anything away from Williston; they played a hell of a game tonight. I thought we were getting our looks,” Marshall said. “I didn’t think they took us out of anything. They made shots at the rim very difficult. They contested very well. Their big man’s a very talented player, and they had some good pressure on our guards.”
Akok Ajou scored four points, and the teams traded put-backs as LRSC made it a seven-point game. The Royals, who went 1-of-15 from three-point range in the first half, missed a pair of them before WSC hit another to extend its lead to 30-17.
The Royals slowly chipped back and made it as close as 36-28. But they got in foul trouble after a missed layup, and WSC reclaimed a double-digit advantage.
LRSC also went just 4-of-10 from the free throw line in the first half, including 1-of-4 for Alvin Payne. That, combined with not having the offensive firepower that Davis and Chambers provide, put LRSC in a 44-29 hole at halftime.
“You can make excuses: ‘Well, we’re missing our top two scorers,’” Marshall said. “But we’ve shown all year that other guys have been capable of stepping up and carrying the scoring lead. And I just didn’t think that happened tonight.”
WSC increasingly built its lead the rest of the way, showing off with an alley-oop and multiple threes. The Royals had a better scoring half; Payne scored 11 after only one in the first half, while Tropnas and Antonio Speed each added seven.
The typically consistent Tropnas still had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
“It starts with G… We need to do a better job of getting him the ball,” Marshall said. “But he needs to see the opportunities. I thought he missed a few opportunities tonight, of when we could have gotten him the ball… We need some guys to step up and make some threes.”
Locking down on shooting is going to be a focus for the team at practice this week. The Royals are hoping to have Chambers back soon, and Davis is going to get looked at next week. But in the meantime, they’ll need to shoot more consistently to stay in games.
“A lot of shooting and some free throws,” Marshall said. “I heard a coach one time say, ‘Nobody ever goes up to the free throw line looking to miss free throws. So I don’t think it’s a wholesale ‘We’ve gotta change everything, we’ve gotta do this’; I think we’ve just gotta come refocused and have a good day of practice, and just start stacking them one by one.”