Royals looking to rebound after tough year

The Lake Region State College Royals men's basketball will look to rebound during the 2023-2024 season after a challenging 3-27 season. Head Coach Jared Marshall, entering his 10th season on the bench, has brought in a lot of new faces to do just that.

Anchored by 4 returners Harrison Raynor (5.4ppg 3.0rpg 1.6apg), Blessed Barhayiga (6.5ppg 4.3rpg), Noah Bonick (8.2ppg 4.6rpg 2.2apg) & Red Shirt Drew Bordeaux, Marshall will look to them to lead the host of new comers. Marshall said, "It's not unusual at our level to have such a large turnover. These 4 guys have been around. They know how we like to do things and I will be leaning on them early to lead us."

The Royals added two transfers to help with their leadership in 6'11 juco transfer Jordan Willis and NCAA D2 transfer Rihards Porietis." Adding two experienced players like Jordan & Rihards was important to me this off season. Jordan is going to help anchor our defense and paint presence. While Rihards is another guy we can rely on as a solid all around player and to help provide some scoring."

Add in a host of young talent and Marshall feels good about the team this year." We just need to get back to being a tough, hard nosed basketball team. If we can get back to being a top 50 defensive team like we were from 2020-2022 we are going to find success."

The Royals head to Iowa this weekend for the ICCAC Juco Jam and will kick their season off at the Buster Gillis Classic in New Town, ND versus Dawson CC on Nov 3rd.