Royals Off TO Slow Start

The Lake Region State College Royals men’s basketball team has not gotten off to the start they had hoped on the season. After winning their first 2 games, one in dramatic full court fashion with a tip in at the buzzer to win over Williston State 65-63, the Royals have dropped 6 straight.

Two of their losses have been in overtime, one to Miles CC 92-85 and the other to BSC where the Mystics hit a three with 2.2 seconds left on the clock to seal it 83-80. Three of the other losses have come by a combined twelve total points, with losses to NDSCS 77-74, DCB 79-76 & DCC 85-71. The only somewhat lopsided loss was to UTTC 87-74.

 Even with the losses piling up, Head Coach Jared Marshall isn’t ready to hit the panic button yet. He said, “We have a pretty good team, it is still early on in the year and 9 of our 10 guys are brand new. We are still trying to find ourselves. All these games we have had leads down the stretch, we just haven’t been able to close them out and that is what we need to continue to improve on.”

 Offensively, the Royals are shooting almost 50% from the field and 41% from three. They have struggled to get stops on defense when it matters though which have hurt them. All ten players that suit for games have seen minutes and contributed. Javion Byers leads all scores right now with 16.6ppg 4.4rpg & 3.4apg. Mayson Brown (12.6ppg), Sam Faraday (11.1) and Mo Ammad (10.4ppg) round out the double digit scoring for the Royals. Sam Faraday also leads the Royals in rebounding with 5.4rpg.

 Marshall continued, “We just need to stick together, we have a tough stretch coming up. If we can stick together, get things to start clicking, we are going to be a tough team after break.”

 The Royals head to Casper, WY to take part in their holiday classic. They will play Western Wyoming Friday night and then RV Casper College. The Royals next home game will be Nov 30^th vs. Rainy River. On the horizon is a tilt with #1 Indian Hills in Ottumwa Iowa on December 8^th.