Lara Graham (Photo by Noah Clooten)
Both the men’s and women’s basketball seasons came to an end on Wednesday for Lake Region State College. Each team lost in the Region XIII semifinal after winning its quarterfinal contest.
The No. 3-seeded men (16-16, 7-7) lost to No. 2-seeded Williston State College (23-7, 10-3), 99-68. The Royals trailed 44-36 at halftime and got outscored by 23 in the second half.
Alvin Payne and Ginuwine Tropnas had 20 and 19 points, respectively. Poet Davis had 10. Ron Lee, who averaged 8.4 points per game this season, got only nine minutes of playing time and didn’t score any points.
Davis ended up as the team leader in points per game with 15.5, followed by Bronson Chambers (14.3), Tropnas (13.8) and Payne (11.4). The Royals won seven more games than they did last year and scored over 500 more points.
In fact, LRSC won more games this year (16) than it had in the previous two seasons combined (12).
For Jared Marshall, who’s been the head coach for 10 years now, this was the first of his teams to finish exactly .500. He’s had six winning seasons and three losing seasons.
Six of the Royals’ 15 players this year were sophomores and will move on.
Meanwhile, the No. 4-seeded LRSC women (15-17, 7-8) lost a 67-62 thriller to No. 1-seeded North Dakota State College of Science on Wednesday.
The Royals were without sophomore Arden Faulkner, who went down with a knee injury in Sunday’s quarterfinal win over Miles Community College. That left LRSC with just six active players.
Yet, the Royals found themselves up 14 at halftime against a team that beat them by 26 in a game recently. They led 34-20.
NDSCS outscored LRSC 26-12 in the third quarter, though, to erase the deficit and send it to the fourth quarter tied 46-46. The final frame featured a slew of lead changes, but the Wildcats outpaced the Royals in the end.
Freshman Sydney Schwabe continued her strong season with a team-best 26 points. Sophomore Nicole Lillard added 13. Lara Graham, starting in place of the injured Faulkner, put up 10 points and 10 rebounds. All five starters got more than 31 minutes of playing time, with freshman Brinly Gregory adding 23 minutes off the bench.
The Royals ended up losing six of their last seven games of the season after starting 14-11. Compared to last year’s 20-12 campaign, they scored 3.3 more points per game while allowing 7.4 more.
Schwabe finished in the team lead with 13.4 points per game. Lillard had 12.6, and Faulkner had 10.2. Last year, LRSC didn’t have any players in double figures per game, but it had seven players at 5.5 or more.
It was a strong first year for Colden Hutton despite the constant hurdle of a small roster and a collection of injuries. Morgan Leas and Elizabeth Kisolo each missed the majority of the season with various ailments, while Gregory missed the early part of the season and Faulkner missed the very end.
Five of the nine players on the roster were sophomores. Schwabe, Graham, Gregory and Jenna Tierney all have eligibility to come back for one more year.
