Royals roll continues with sweep of weekend tournament

Article by Chuck Wickenhofer, Devils Lake Journal Sports, November 7th, 2016.

The Lake Region State College men's basketball team went to 3-0 on the season after a couple of big wins in this weekend's Sleep Inn Tournament.

Though the team hasn't been tested much throughout the first three games, Saturday night's tilt against Leech Lake wasn't a cakewalk. The Royals beat the Lakers 92-82, but head coach Jared Marshall saw plenty of room for improvement.

"We didn't do a good job sharing the basketball," Marshall said. "When you're playing some teams that aren't as good defensively, you can kind of do things on your own. If we just make the simple pass, run the reverse and get a few reversals, we're going to get what we want." 

One area the Royals struggled in Saturday was inside play. 7' center Harvey Barr and 6'10" center James Streeter both had their struggles on the night, as they combined for two field goals and nine points overall.

However, guards Cedric Boone and Jarrett Baptiste stepped in to pace the Royals. Boone scored 20 points on 6-of-13 shooting from behind the arc, while Baptiste 19 points and three rebounds.

Boone, who played only seven minutes in the opening game against Fort Berthold, showed enough to get the start in both Saturday and Sunday's games.

"He really stepped up, he brought a lot of energy," Marshall said.

"He's a really nice player and he's going to be a big part of what we do from here on out."

It was a different story for the Royals in Sunday's game against Turtle Mountain. The Royals were dominant the entire game, doubling up the Mighty Mikinocks 134-67. Boone led the team in scoring again, tallying 31 points on 9-of-12 shooting from three while adding five assists.

Freshman guard Jordan Bolton scored 15 points, adding seven assists and five rebounds, while fellow freshman guard Kobe Boraas also scored

15 on 50 percent shooting from behind the arc.

Marshall says that the first three games will prepare his team for the schedule moving forward.

"I'm really happy with how we handled these first three games, I think we learned a lot about how deep we can be." Marshall said. "We have a lot of firepower."

The Royals will be in action this weekend during the Holiday Inn Tournament at the Sports Center. They'll face off against Gillette, which Marshall says is a different test for his team.

"Gillette is very athletic team. I think we'll be able to match up, I think we can match up against anybody," Marshall said. "If we need to be quick, we can match up quick. If we need to go big, we can match up big."