Dorvan McKay (Photo by Noah Clooten)
GRAND FORKS — Carrington has not won a region game since the implementation of the three-class basketball system. Four Winds/Minnewaukan, meanwhile, beat the No. 4 team in Class A just last week.
So who led after each of the first three quarters on Monday?
The former team, of course.
The Indians (15-7) survived a scare, beating Carrington (12-10) by a score of 72-62 to kick off the Region 2 Boys’ Basketball Tournament at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. They had beaten Carrington by 36 in the regular season. The Indians were down by as many as 10 in the first half and by seven at halftime. Even in the fourth quarter, FW/M trailed by as many as six.
But it pulled out the win to advance to the region semifinals.
“That’s all that matters, we move on to the next round,” FW/M head coach Rick Smith said. “They made us earn it. They shot the lights out of it. We thought we were gonna have an easier game. And they came out and they smashed us in the face right off the bat.”
Sophomore Taylen Mehring led the Cardinals with 21 points on five three-pointers. Carrington hit nine triples overall. The Indians had early leads of 2-0 and 4-3, but didn’t lead again until the middle of the fourth quarter.
They struggled to hold onto the ball or finish drives out of the gates. They weren’t gelling offensively, and they were charged with three fouls in the first four minutes.
Grady Idland hit a pair of triples in the first quarter for Carrington. The Cardinals led 12-6 more than five minutes into the game.
FW/M’s depth, which has carried it all season, helped it stay in the game as Richard Cavanaugh and Jonte Delorme each hit a three off the bench. They got the Indians within two. But Mehring swished a triple for Carrington, giving him eight points in the quarter.
Dorvan McKay scored to cap the first quarter, sending FW/M into the second quarter down 17-14.
It was the other Delorme, Greyson, who helped keep the Indians within two early in the second quarter. But Mehring landed three more triples in the quarter, including two deep from the parking lot.
His fourth three-pointer of the game stretched Carrington’s lead as large as 36-26. G. Delorme responded with his second triple of the quarter for FW/M.
But the Indians still trailed 36-29 at halftime. They had eight players in the scoring column, and four total triples, but no individual player with more than six points. Mehring had a whopping 16 at the half for Carrington. The Cardinals had seven threes — all from Mehring and Idland. They didn’t even get any first-half field goals from the dangerous Josh Bickett.
“We were trying to take the ball out of Bickett’s hands as much as we could,” Smith said. “But at the same time, we left Mehring open, and he started draining ‘em, and Idland started draining ‘em, and got us on our heels a little bit. So we had to shift our defense a little bit and tighten it up.”
The Indians rode seven straight points to cut their deficit to 42-40 in the third quarter. Ron McKay had six points in the third quarter, including his own put-back.
But Bickett got going a little bit, hitting a three to extend Carrington’s lead back to five. Mehring hit another deep three to make it 48-42 in the Cardinals’ favor with less than two minutes left in the third quarter.
Marial Deng came up with an enormous and-one, then made another bucket to rapidly get the Indians within a point. Carrington still grabbed some last-second momentum with an off-balance three at the buzzer from Bickett. The senior, who passed 1,000 points this season, roared as the Cardinals went into the fourth quarter with a 53-49 lead.
They were so close to a monumental upset.
“We had to continue to pressure, but at the same time, we had to get out on their shooters a little tighter than we were,” Smith said.
Bickett got the Cardinals started in the fourth quarter. Despite his zero field goals in the first half, he ended up scoring 17 overall.
But the Indians finally found ways to get to the rim and rebound. They went on a 10-0 run. Bickett and Maddox McIlonie each had their minutes limited after reaching the four-foul mark, and a key turnover allowed D. McKay to tie it up. McKay had three straight baskets to put FW/M up 57-55 — its first lead since the opening few minutes of the game.
“Defense, that’s the main thing,” McKay said after the game. “We all just thought about our season ending, so we dialed down on the defensive end and got to the rack. Pushed the ball, and all worked together.”
The Indians outscored the Cardinals 13-5 the rest of the way. R. McKay, who only had four points in the first half, scored 12 in the second half to finish with 16 overall. Deng also had just four in the first half and put up 13 in the second half. D. McKay had only two in the first half, then went and put up 13 in the second half.
It was that three-headed monster that largely fueled the Indians to victory.
“We started getting to the rim and making them come out on us,” Smith said. “And Ron started crashing the offensive boards and getting some easy bunnies off that, off our penetration. We started taking better shots… Dorvan McKay kind of set that tempo for us in the second half.”
By the end, the Cardinals were out of steam. FW/M comfortably held on to finish what was otherwise not a comfortable victory in the slightest.
The Indians’ semifinal opponent on Tuesday is No. 2-seeded Thompson. FW/M lost to the Tommies 69-47 on Jan. 31, but beat them 56-51 last Tuesday.
“We’re gonna have to, again, keep them from getting second-chance points like we did the last time we played them,” Smith said. “We’re gonna have to double down on their posts. We’re coming off a tough game tonight where we played a lot of guys, but it’ll be a different kind of a game where they’re more of an inside team, make their living in the paint. And we’re gonna have to try and take that away.”
The winner goes to the region championship. The loser plays in Thursday’s third-place game with a chance to go to a state qualifier.
