Ron Lee (2) / Photo by Noah Clooten
The Lake Region State College basketball season has been very home-heavy lately.
So, it’s only natural that the teams’ seasons would shift to the North Dakota winter roads this February. After four consecutive Sundays at home, the LRSC men’s and women’s teams traveled west early this week.
They played Williston State College on Sunday, then Dakota College at Bottineau on Monday. Both teams lost to WSC. The women took a surprising loss to Bottineau, while the men sent the Royals back home with a win.
The Tetons are one of the best teams in the Mon-Dak Athletic Conference in both the men’s and women’s divisions. That’s despite the fact that each team had to forfeit two games — including one each to LRSC — earlier this year after failing to get its players’ eligibility recertified.
The women lost 90-60 to a WSC team that’s 19-7 overall and 7-3 in conference play. (Those numbers would be 21-5 and 9-1 if not for the forfeits.) Last time, in the game that eventually had its result reversed, the Royals lost 63-50.
The LRSC women were outscored in each individual quarter on Sunday. Sydney Schwabe led them with 18 points, while Arden Faulkner had 13.
While WSC was likely the favored team over the Royals, their loss to Bottineau was more unprecedented. LRSC previously beat Bottineau twice this season: 88-82 and 78-46. The Royals lost 79-63 to that same team on Monday.
They led 22-18 after the first quarter, but got outscored 28-8 in the second and trailed 46-30 at halftime. They didn’t have quite enough to come back at the end.
Faulkner had a great game with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Schwabe put up 15 points, and Jenna Tierney scored 12.
Nicole Lillard, who scored a relatively mild nine points in each game, still leads the Royals with 12.7 points per game. Schwabe has 12.5 and Faulkner has 10.6.
The two losses put the LRSC women at 14-13 overall and 7-4 in conference play — good for fourth place in the Mon-Dak. They’re right behind third-place WSC. Bottineau, sitting in sixth place, improved to 12-12 overall and 4-6 in conference.
The fourth-place men faced a similarly good Tetons team on Sunday. WSC is in second place on the men’s side at 19-7 overall and 7-3 in conference (again, including the two forfeits).
The Royals lost a shootout, falling 129-124 to the Tetons in overtime. They trailed by six at the half and by as many as 19 at one point, but roared back to keep the game alive. Alvin Payne led the team with 32 points, while Bronson Chambers had 24 and Ron Lee scored 18 off the bench. WSC won 21-16 in the overtime period.
Finally, a string of three losses for the two LRSC teams came to an end with a Royals victory Monday evening. Poet Davis led the Royals with 33 points in an 84-67 beatdown of last-place Bottineau. They only led by five at halftime but widened the gap with a 39-27 second half.
Akok Ajou and Ginuwine Tropnas each had 10 rebounds for the Royals. It was a double-double for Tropnas, who put up 11 points. Payne was second on the team in points with 20.
Davis, Chambers and Tropnas are the top three scorers, respectively, for the men’s team this year.
The LRSC basketball teams are off this Sunday, and will play on the road against North Dakota State College of Science on Monday. Their final home games of the regular season are set for Sunday, Feb. 23 against Bismarck State College.
