Royal men bring back win from road trip
The Lake Region State College men's basketball team has been living on the road as of late. During a tour of Iowa and Minnesota, the Royals fell in their first two games on the trip to Dakota County Technical College and Iowa Western, respectively.
Article by Harry Lipsiea, Devils Lake Journal Sports, December 6th, 2017.
The Lake Region State College men's basketball team has been living on the road as of late.
During a tour of Iowa and Minnesota, the Royals fell in their first two games on the trip to Dakota County Technical College and Iowa Western, respectively.
The good news for the Royals was that the program closed out the weekend with a victory over Concordia College JV.
"It was a disappointing start to the trip with a loss to DCTC, but I was happy how we got a little better throughout the weekend," Jared Marshall, LRSC head men's basketball coach, commented. "We played our best basketball in our last game against Concordia."
Iowa Western
On Friday evening, Lake Region State College played one of the best teams in the nation against Iowa Western.
The Royals battled throughout, but ultimately fell short 88-64. Lake Region State College was without the services of two of its sophomores Ben Rennie and Jayson Edwards due to injury and sickness.
It proved to be a difficult task as Iowa Western started five sophomores compared to five freshmen of Lake Region State College.
"That's a very talented team in Iowa Western," Marshall commented. "We had some really good moments of basketball tonight and some not so good moments too."
The Royals found themselves down 38-24 at the half. They tried to fight back, but dropped the contest 88-64.
Lake Region State College was led by Jordan Bolton with 17 points.
Cedric Boone had 13 points and 10 rebounds. James Streeter added 10 points while Jarrett Baptiste chipped in with eight points. Harvey Barr and Kobe Boraas finished with five points apiece while Nic Fassos and Sam Riley added three points each.
"Another night with 20+ turnovers. We have to get that cleaned up. We must improve in that aspect of the game. It continues to cost us. I think we are starting to figure out we need to raise the level of intensity in practice."
Concordia JV
A quick start led to a big victory for the Lake Region State College men's basketball team. The Royals ran away with an impressive 105-75 victory over Concordia JV Sunday morning.
"I liked the pace we played at today. We did a nice job getting up-and-down the floor and that came from getting stops early," Marshall pointed out.
"We got a lot of fast break opportunities and that helped us stretch out the lead."
Lake Region State College led 46-29 at the half on the way to the 105-75 triumph on the road.
Cedric Boone led the way with 20 points and seven assists. Jordan Bolton had 17 points. Kobe Boraas chipped in with 14 points while Derrick Laudenbach added 13. Jarrett Baptiste finished with nine points while Drew Thielges, Harvey Barr and Sam Riley each scored seven points. Aaron Boone had four points and Jon Lund added three points. Nic Fassos and James Streeter rounded out the scoring with two points each.
"We got good contributions from everyone today," Marshall added. "I thought our play from the bench was much improved from the last few games. Our depth really showed today."
It's an important time for the Royals as they almost hit the season's halfway point. After the team's game against Iowa Western, Marshall had a talk with the team about moving forward.
"My message to the team was simple, we are almost half way through the year and we continue to make the same mistakes. I told them we needed to grow as individuals and really feel a sense of urgency to change the way we do things. I told our freshman they can't play like freshmen anymore. They have played half a year of college basketball. It's time you grow up," the coach said.
The Royals improve to 10-5 overall. The squad players Turtle Mountain Community College on the the road Thursday.