LRSC men beat Dakota Technical Community College
The Lake Region State College men’s basketball team hosted Dakota County Technical College Sunday afternoon, and the Royals managed to secure an 81-74 victory after trailing for most of the game.
Article by Chuck Wickenhofer, Devils Lake Journal Sports, published Dec. 7, 2015.
The Lake Region State College men's basketball team hosted Dakota County Technical College Sunday afternoon, and the Royals managed to secure an 81-74 victory after trailing for most of the game.
The DCTC Blue Knights came to play, and it showed as they maintained a lead for most of the first half, going into halftime with a 44-41 lead. They continued to lead for most of the second half, as Cameron Tutt led the Blue Knights with 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting, while Jerome Dixon poured in four threes as the Knights' number one outside threat.
However, the Royals kept enough defensive pressure on a feisty Blue Knights squad to stay close throughout the game. Though they sometimes struggled to find their shot and grab boards against a skilled rebounding team, the Royals refused to let DCTC pull too far ahead at any point. No slouches at rebounding themselves, the Royals had more and more success pulling down boards as the game progressed. "That's a great rebounding team, they're top 50 in the nation in Division II junior college - but we're a top 30 rebounding team in the nation ourselves...it's two teams that pride themselves on rebounding. It's kind of an immovable object meets unstoppable force type deal," said Royals head coach Jared Marshall
Led by Ryan Clark's 23 point, 16 rebound effort, and with major contributions from AJ Nywesh (18 points, 7 boards, 7-of-8 from the line) and Dawson Peterson (12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocked shots), the Royals took their first lead of the second half, 76-74, with two minutes left in the game. The Blue Knights would not score again, and the Royals closed out a hard-fought win to improve to 11-3 on the season.
Marshall gave credit to the Blue Knights before noting how this hard-fought win has likely made the Royals tougher. "They're just a solid team - they're athletic, they work hard, they're well coached...they gave us a tough one last year, and every year we've played them," said Marshall. "I think we're better because of it. We're challenging ourselves by playing tougher teams at the beginning of this year, and I think we're finding ways to win close games."
The Royals will take the experience gained from the tough test against the Blue Knights into their next game on the road against Jamestown's JV squad before returning home for a matchup vs. the Mighty Mikinocks of Turtle Mountain Community College.
