Lady Royals go 1-1 during Holiday Inn Classic

The Lake Region State College Lady Royals hosted the Holiday Inn Classic in Devils Lake. LRSC would come into the games sporting a 2-0 record on the season.

First up for Lake Region was Miles City Community College Pioneers out of Montana. The Pioneers of MCC would jump out to an early 12-2 lead over the Royals in the first quarter. It wouldn't last long as LRSC chipped away at it cutting the 10-point lead to 4 heading into the half trailing 35-31. In the 2^nd half it was all Royals as they made quick work of the Pioneer lead. By the end of the 3^rd the Royals had taken the lead and would not give it back. Sophomore Emily Schafer scored 8 of the final 14 points for the Royals to close out the Pioneers 70-63. She ended up with 30 points on the night and added 7 rebounds. Sophomore Annie Jorgenson had 19 points on 4 of 7 shooting from behind the arc. She also grabbed 5 rebounds.

Head Coach Danny Mertens said, "I was proud of our resiliency tonight. We were down over half the game and managed to fight back to take the lead at the end of the 3^rd. We had two big efforts from our sophomores Annie and Emily tonight. One area we need to do better in is our turnovers, we have way too many tonight. We need to do a better job of taking care of the ball."

On Saturday afternoon, the Lady Royals would take on NJCAA D3 #6 ranked Northland Community and Technical College Pioneers out of Minnesota. After a well-played first quarter by LRSC in which they held an 18-15 lead, the Pioneers made a run. NCTC would score 24 points to the Royals 7 in the second to take the lead 39-25 heading into the half. Despite an early run in the 3^rd by LRSC, Northland would use another big quarter to keep the Royals at bay. They scored 25 points in the 3^rd and stretched the lead to 21 after 3. LRSC did their best to make a run in the 4^th but could never close it to single digits. NCTC kept the Royals at bay to win 72-58. It was a tough shooting night for LRSC, going 23-62 from the field, 37%, and 3-15 from 3, 20%. The Lady Royals were never able to find their groove on that end of the floor. Freshman post Maggie Gilbert had 12 points and 5 rebounds, while sophomore Emily Schafer led the Royals again in scoring with 16.

Head Coach Danny Mertens said, "We struggled tonight to find our energy on both ends of the floor. During the game we had our moments, we just weren't able to sustain them. I thought we did a much better job of taking care of the ball and got better in that department. We will learn from this as a team and get better."

The 3-1 Lady Royals are back in action Saturday, November 18^th versus Concordia JV at 5pm and Sunday, November 19^th versus Jamestown JV at 2pm.

Go Royals!