Royals split games in Wyoming weekend

The Lake Region State College men's basketball team split a pair of games in Wyoming over the weekend, losing 94-83 to Gillette College on Friday and beating Miles City Community College 84-76 Saturday.

Friday's game saw a huge performance out of AJ Nywesh. The sophomore had a career high 38 points for the Royals.

"AJ Nywesh is a special kid," Royals head coach Jared Marshall said. "Unbelievable how hard this kid has worked to get where he is. He is a constant every night that coaches have to game plan for."

LRSC had a 49-47 lead at halftime, but were outscored 47-34 in the second half.

"This was a back-and-forth game all night," Marshall said. "Gillette's length and pressure defense bothered us. Playing in these kinds of games is only going to make us better and tougher."

LRSC responded the next day with a win against Miles City, moving its record to 9-3.

"We played phenomenal defense today," Marshall said. "When you're holding teams to 36 percent from the floor and 16 percent from behind the three, you are really guarding."

Ryan Clark had 28 points and 18 rebounds to lead LRSC.

"We took advantage of a mismatch that they had on Ryan Clark," Marshall said. "We made it an emphasis to really get him the ball and he didn't let us down. He showed up big for us tonight."