Ron McKay (Photo by Noah Clooten)
GRAND FORKS — On Monday, it was Four Winds/Minnewaukan nearly getting upset by Carrington.
On Tuesday, it was the Indians on the side of an upset attempt. But despite holding a top-five Thompson team to 48 points, FW/M (15-8) scored only 44 of its own in a four-point loss to the Tommies (15-7).
“That’s what we were afraid of,” Indians head coach Rick Smith said. “Let them score layups and free throws on us, and slow the damn game down. We knew that we had to stay away from that, and we didn’t.”
Thompson had 14 field goals on the night, and just a single three-pointer. It went 19-of-31 from the free throw line.
“We just could not get away from that,” Smith said. “When you’re playing a Thompson team, you just can’t allow them to shoot layups and shoot free throws. They’re just too big, too strong, too physical. We didn’t force any turnovers, and we had too many unforced turnovers ourselves. We’re missing bunnies, and we’re missing layups — it’s like it was our first game at the Betty and not theirs… For how poorly we played, we were in the game right to the very, very end.”
FW/M was coming off a 56-51 win over Thompson last week. Back in January, the Indians lost by 22 to the Tommies.
The narrow loss sent FW/M to Thursday’s third-place game against Grafton, which will precede the region championship between Devils Lake and Thompson.
Ron McKay, Dorvan McKay and Joran Lohnes each scored eight points, but no Indian had more than that.
A sparse first quarter set the tone for the quiet offensive night for both squads. FW/M scored the game’s first points about a minute and 20 seconds in, courtesy of R. McKay. But McKay also got into immediate foul trouble with two in the first two and a half minutes.
“I tried to get the switch off Peterson right away, and I should have did that right away,” Smith said. “We were trying to call for the switch and get Tyler [Black Jr.] on [Karter] Peterson, and it was too damn late and he picks up the second.
The Indians’ 6-foot-4 freshman, Sonny Alberts, had two shots blocked below the rim. Almost five minutes into the game, it was a 3-2 Thompson lead with a basket from Braden Tyce and 1-of-2 free throws by Thomas Schumacher.
But Peterson and Gavin Krogstad each got one in. The Indians went more than five minutes without any points.
McKay was charged with his third foul with 37.7 seconds left in the first quarter. Peterson missed the free throw on the and-one, and also missed the subsequent put-back despite coming up with a nice rebound.
The Tommies weren’t great offensively to start, but the Indians were worse. The deficit was 10-4 after one full quarter and as large as 12-4 in the second.
Alberts made a nice move to help get FW/M within five, and Greyson Delorme hit a three to make it 16-12. Noah Hippen subsequently missed a pair of free throws for Thompson. But it was Hippen who made the next two Tommies baskets, building a 20-12 lead with less than three minutes left in the first half.
The Indians scratched and clawed their way to four more points in the half on 4-of-6 free throw shooting. Despite making just four field goals, they trailed only 20-16 at halftime. Hippen missed two more free throws, going 0-of-4 from the line in the first half.
McKay scored back-to-back baskets out of the halftime break to knot it up at 20-20 in a flash. But just as swiftly, McKay committed his fourth foul, putting him back on the bench.
“That hurts,” Smith said. “And then he picks up the fourth trying to draw a charge. Just gotta be smarter in those situations… Having him [out] for a majority of the game hurt our inside game and our defensive attacking on the post.”
Alberts, despite missing a pair of free throws, came up big in the third quarter. He used his tall, muscular frame to grab a rebound, then got an and-one on the same play.
It took over four minutes for Thompson to get a field goal in the third quarter. But it went ahead on free throws by Krogstad, then led 27-24 after a basket by Hippen.
Joran Lohnes shot a left-handed three to jolt the Indians back ahead 29-27, following a missed layup and an airball by Thompson. But the Tommies went up 32-31 on their own go-ahead three by Gavin Oster. Kashton Keja Jr. flung up a three attempt at the buzzer that got stuck between the rim and the backboard.
R. McKay was back on the floor for the fourth quarter. FW/M trailed by as many as nine, and took more than half of the quarter to score any points. But after threes by Jonte Delorme and Lohnes, it was suddenly a three-point game at 46-44.
The Indians simply ran out of time. Krogstad hit two clutch free throws, and it was a two-possession game with 6.1 seconds left.
“We should be able to win a game when we hold a team to 48 points,” Smith said. “But we didn’t. Their defense was just a little bit stronger than ours.”
It all comes down to the marbles on Thursday against Grafton. The winner moves to a state qualifier game Saturday, while the loser’s season will end. The Indians beat the Spoilers twice during the regular season — once in a 76-52 blowout, and more recently in a 58-52 battle.
“Their three-headed monster, of course; you can’t let any one of those guys go crazy on you,” Smith said. “Control the tempo. You’ve gotta at least contain two of them. I thought for the most part, both times we played them, we did a pretty good job on all three of them. [Kyler] Droog got away from us in the second game a little bit, but Droog’s an all-state basketball player; that stuff’s gonna happen. And we’ve just gotta be able to keep Ron on the floor and match up with their three-headed monster.”
