DEVILS LAKE — In a rarity for this No. 2-ranked Devils Lake boys’ basketball team, the Firebirds trailed at halftime on Friday.
They were outscored 22-4 in the second quarter by a Class AA team in Grand Forks Central. But a pair of 11-0 runs in the third quarter — in which they only allowed four points — propelled the Firebirds (13-0, 4-0) to a 62-49 win over the Knights (4-10, 2-7).
“This is perfect for us because we’ve gotta have this adversity,” Devils Lake head coach Dustin Brodina said. “Because we can’t simulate this in practice… We had some really good senior leadership coming out of halftime.”
Joel Nelson and Oliver Wirth were tied for the team lead in points with 14. Mason Palmer scored 13, and Parker Brodina had nine. Trason Beck had seven, all in the fourth quarter. Max Palmer’s five points came in an otherwise quiet second quarter for the Firebirds.
Devils Lake didn’t click in the first quarter like it usually does. Central led 4-2 nearly halfway through the period. The Firebirds weren’t finishing drives and were missing their open three looks.
They still jumped ahead 8-4 on a 6-0 run. Wirth had a put-back on a Mason Palmer missed three to tie it, following a steal by Nelson. Devils Lake had eight points on one basket from each of its big four.
A three-pointer got Central within one, and a buzzer-beating layup kept the margin at three at the end of the first quarter. Devils Lake didn’t have a great first quarter, but it still led 12-9.
Then the wheels fell off a bit in the second quarter.
Central tied it up right away with a trey. Max Palmer made a pair of free throws to put Devils Lake up 14-12, and the Knights responded with a 6-0 run.
Max Palmer knocked down a three to get the Firebirds within one. But Central shot back once again with its own three, which extended into a 9-0 run. The Knights found ways to get down the court. And they almost completely limited Devils Lake’s big weapons. For the vast majority of the second quarter, Max Palmer was the only Firebird with points.
Parker Brodina scored with around eight seconds left in the first half. But even then, Central connected on another three before the buzzer to extend its lead to double digits.
Brodina had just four points in the first half. Mason Palmer and Wirth had only two each. Nelson’s six — all in the first quarter — led the team. The team that was averaging 75 points a game trailed 30-19 at the half.
“They did a hell of a job of really collapsing on the defense,” Brodina said of the Knights. “And the guys really wanted, in my opinion, tried to be the Superman and win the game by themselves. A little too much one-on-one. We talked about that at halftime, about being a team and sharing the ball.”
To say Devils Lake flipped the game on its head in the third quarter would be an understatement. It rode a pair of 11-0 runs, outscoring Central 22-4 to take a seven-point lead.
The first of those two stretches tied the game at 30 apiece. It was a 22-2 run until Central scored with about 40 seconds left in the third quarter.
“Just find the open guy and trust our teammates,” Brodina said. “It starts at the defensive end. We buckled down, didn’t let them do what they wanted to do and we were able to get it on the offensive end.”
And so Devils Lake ran away with it. The Knights never had the gap closer than six points in the fourth quarter. Wirth had 12 points with two three-pointers in the second half. Mason Palmer had 11 second-half points.
The Firebirds locked down a 13-point win, 62-49 over Central.
“Our guys responded at halftime with adjustments that we wanted to make,” Brodina said. “I was proud of the first quarter and the second half. The second quarter, not so much.”
Devils Lake returns to play at home against Hillsboro/Central Valley on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. The Firebirds previously beat this team 58-41.