Ginuwine Tropnas (Photo by Noah Clooten)
DEVILS LAKE — The Royals left no doubt on Sunday.
Lake Region State College men’s basketball (15-14, 7-6), in its last home game of the regular season, dominated the Bismarck State College Mystics (9-19, 3-10) to the tune of a 111-68 beatdown.
Ginuwine Tropnas became LRSC’s all-time blocks leader in the process. Very little went wrong for the Royals, who won their third straight. Six players reached double-figure point totals: Bronson Chambers with 19, Alvin Payne with 15, Ron Lee and Poet Davis with 13 each, Tropnas with 12 and Antonio Speed with 11.
“I felt like it’s the best all-around performance we’ve had in a while,” LRSC head coach Jared Marshall said. “I thought we played a pretty well-rounded game for the full 40 minutes.”
The Royals, fresh off of honoring their sophomores, came out with a relaxed and explosive energy about them. A pair of 7-0 runs jolted them out to a 16-4 lead to start.
“We’ve decided to come out in the press and try and maybe put the energy on them a little bit more,” Marshall said. “So that was kind of our mindset. Not so much that we didn’t think they could handle a ball or anything like that, but moreso to get ourselves into it.”
BSC responded with its own 7-0 run. But the Royals outscored the Mystics 41-18 for the rest of the first half as they maintained control.
Tropnas passed the all-time blocks threshold right before a Davis three. Davis raised both of his arms as his teammates crowded Tropnas and celebrated him during a timeout. LRSC led 43-18 at the time.
“He’s a guy for two years that we’ve been able to rely on as the backbone of our defense,” Marshall said. “That play is just kind of essential to who he is and who we are, where he’s getting blocks and it leads to a fast-break play for us. Defense leads to offense because of what he brings to the table.”
It was a sparkling 57-29 at halftime. Chambers led the team with 14 points on a pair of triples and four deuces. He had two steals, including one that led to his own layup.
The Royals shot 59% in the first half and made six threes. Nine total Royals were already in the scoring column.
The Mystics played better in the second half. But it was already a lost cause by that point, with the margin never shrinking below 24 points.
BSC opened the half on a 19-15 stretch in its favor. The Royals got going again with an 11-0 run that included a three by Isaac Warhurst off the bench.
Payne, Davis, Lee and Akok Ajou also connected on triples in the second half. Lee had nine second-half points, while Payne and Speed each had seven.
Warhurst’s second three of the half got LRSC into the 100s. He was one of 10 Royals who contributed to the scoring column overall.
“We’re a deep team,” Marshall said. “Guys can come in and get shots and do things for us… I felt like everybody kind of brought something to the table today.”
With the win, the Royals secured a home playoff game next Sunday. That’ll come following the conclusion of their regular season on the road against United Tribes Technical College (11-16, 6-7) on Monday.
“I’ve liked our chances against everybody all year,” Marshall said. “We can play with anybody when we play like that. We just need to keep putting it together and play the full 40. And I think we’re peaking at the right time.”
