Parker Brodina (Photos by Noah Clooten)
DEVILS LAKE — The Firebirds keep facing incrementally tougher tests.
This time, it was Grafton. A foe all too familiar with Devils Lake — the Spoilers, well, spoiled the Firebirds’ months-spanning winning streak last year, though Devils Lake got its revenge in the state tournament.
Grafton, which recently fell out of the top five in Class A, gave Devils Lake a worthy fight in the first quarter and most of the first half on Tuesday. But the No. 2 Firebirds (10-0, 3-0) ultimately prevailed, running away with it in the third quarter and recording a 70-47 victory in the first leg of a boys-and-girls doubleheader with the Spoilers (5-4, 0-2).
“They’re a great team,” Devils Lake head coach Dustin Brodina said of the Spoilers. “I thought we weathered the storm a little bit in the adversity, and really put it together in the second half and put them away.”
Parker Brodina and Mason Palmer carried the load with 24 and 23 points, respectively. Joel Nelson added nine first-half points, and Max Palmer had an eight-point game. A 22-11 third quarter secured a win for the Firebirds, who led by only two points as late as midway through the second quarter.
From the start, Grafton did a pesky job limiting Devils Lake’s long-range shooting. The types of shots that the Firebirds typically landed with minimal effort against other teams were harder for them to find looks for.
The teams traded two baskets and a turnover to start. Kyler Droog scored Grafton’s first four points, and Lee Roy Delgado put the Spoilers ahead 7-4 with an and-one.
Joel Nelson landed a three to tie it up. Devils Lake was charged with a delay-of-game penalty towards its whole team almost immediately afterward. Baskets by Brodina and Mason Palmer built a four-point lead, but Grafton just as swiftly knotted it back up.
Fausten Olson came off the bench and made a pair of buckets to put Devils Lake ahead 15-11. With both teams arguing foul calls, particularly Grafton head coach Riley Lillemoen, one of the refs told Lillemoen to stay in his box and cut out the “dialogue.”
Grafton once again responded, coming up with a pair of buckets to make it 15-15. The Spoilers missed the potential go-ahead and-one, and Brodina made a shot to narrowly put Devils Lake ahead 17-15 going into the second quarter.
Nelson opened the next period by finding the rim after Grafton fouled on its opening possession. Grafton narrowed the gap to two, and Brodina saw his bucket negated due to a foul on him. The bench displayed their disagreements with the call.
Brodina made a running layup and received a foul in the positive direction to extend the lead to 23-17. But he missed the and-one. Palmer missed a reverse running layup and was clearly frustrated a foul wasn’t called, and then he was charged with another foul that caused some rumblings. Grafton converted both its free throws to make it as tight as 23-21.
“They played really hard defense,” D. Brodina said. “And they closed out really fast on us. So, our moving the ball inside-out, we had guys in our face the whole time. So we’re gonna have to shore that up a little bit. But yeah, they caused some problems.”
The Firebirds gradually inflated the margin back up. Nelson used his tall, wiry frame to wrap around the rim and score. Devils Lake led 29-21 as Grafton took a timeout with 3:28 left in the first half. Brodina landed a three out of the break, giving Devils Lake a double-digit lead for the first time all evening.
Nelson was charged with two fouls down the stretch of the first half, giving him three total. But baskets from both Palmer brothers helped stretch the lead to 41-27 by halftime.
Palmer and Brodina each had 11 in the first half, while Nelson had nine. Wirth unusually had zero in the half, but Max Palmer and Olson provided six and four off the bench, respectively.
The Firebirds started the second half in style. Mason Palmer lobbed one up for Wirth, who slammed one of his signature dunks to join the points column. Devils Lake provided a consistent attack of offensive rebounds and went on runs of 8-0 and 7-0 to build its lead to 25.
“We made a few adjustments at halftime,” Brodina said. “Guys that we wanted to try to manipulate and attack. We allowed Mason to get downhill a little bit more, attack and let him have a little more of a freelance, I would call it — him and Parker. And we kind of leaned on them guys; a little bit of leadership to put the ball in the hole a little bit.”
Devils Lake only made two three-pointers in the first half — a low number by its standards — but Brodina landed a pair in the third quarter. Mason Palmer also made one of his own.
Devils Lake led 63-38 at the end of the third quarter. The Firebirds started the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run on the banks of Brodina’s fourth triple of the game. With Devils Lake’s starters sitting, Grafton finished the game on a 9-0 run.
“Our goal is to keep them under 40,” Brodina said. “And when I took my top guys out, I think they were at 37 or 38. So I was pretty proud of that.”
The win came ahead of a meeting with No. 4 Thompson, a recent addition to the top five after Grafton fell out. Even last year’s unranked Thompson team played competitively against the eventual champions from Devils Lake.
“We feel pretty good if our defense is there,” Brodina said. “They’re a little bit bigger than Grafton. So we’re gonna have to be ready to go. It’s gonna be an extremely physical game. So hopefully we can execute down the stretch and come away with a win.”
