Lady Royals at 3-0 after two big wins in weekend tourney

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

The Lake Region State College women's basketball team rolled through their weekend games in the Sleep Inn Tournament at the Sports Center.

The Royals won their first game Saturday against the Leech Lake Lakers

96-40 on a successful shooting night that was a big improvement over their struggles during their opening game against Fort Berthold. After shooting 1 for 22 from behind the arc against the Storm last Wednesday, the Royals shot 32 percent from three Saturday and 43 percent overall.

Head coach Danny Mertens also attributed stifling defense to his team's success Saturday. 

"Defensively I thought we were solid tonight," Mertens said. "We forced 33 turnovers and got 26 offensive rebounds. That's the way the game needs to go."

Cassidy Nelson led the way for the Royals, scoring 17 points and grabbing five rebounds. Freshman guard Jaden Hanson added 14 points and three boards for the Royals on a night when everyone on the roster showed up in the box score.

"The freshmen played immensely, everyone got in the scoring column,"

Mertens said. "Every game our motto has been (to) get better every day and let the game come to you."

Mikayla Wallace scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds, while sophomore guard Mackenzie Irwin had 10 points, three rebounds and three assists in the win. Tatiana McClain led the way for the Lakers, scoring 14 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

It was a similar story in Sunday's game against Turtle Mountain Community College. The Mighty Mikinocks of TMCC were overmatched against the Royals, who stuck to the same script: Get ahead early, force turnovers, take a lot of shots.

Like they did Saturday, the Royals were able to shoot threes at a respectable percentage, making 30 percent from behind the arc and 36 percent from the field overall.

Irwin led the team in scoring, riding a 5-for-9 shooting night from three point land to notch 18 points to go with her five rebounds and three assists. Nelson logged her second double-double on the season, going for 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Though the Royals got to 3-0 after Sunday's win, Mertens sees a lot of room for improvement. 

"We got beat on some offensive rebounds I didn't like," Mertens said.

"We're going to be undersized pretty much all year, so we're going to have to do some box-out and defensive drills to make sure we don't get beat on the boards."

Mertens also pointed out the need to stay sharp defensively throughout the game.

"I think we lacked a little defensively in the third quarter, which I don't want, but it's hard to keep your attention span up that long over two games," Mertens said. "Defensively we have to be solid."

Freshman guard Emily Schafer had another solid game for the Royals, scoring 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting from three while adding four rebounds and three assists. Freshman Ella Gobald added 10 points and seven rebounds, six of which came on the defensive end.

The Royals are back in action at this weekend's Holiday Inn Tournament Friday through Sunday. They'll face off against Jamestown JV Friday night, and Mertens is preparing his team for a different look than they've faced so far. 

"Jamestown JV is going to be a totally different team," Mertens said.

"They're going to come out and play man (to man), and we're going to have to do some things differently. It's going to be a tough matchup. 

"We'll need to change our mindset up a little bit," Mertens added.

"We're going to have to start inside and work outside, where against the zone we were knocking down some shots. We were kind of going outside-inside."

Though the Royals are entering a tougher part of their early-season schedule, Mertens thinks that the first few games have prepared the team going forward.

"We have a couple of tough games coming next week, but I think we did some things to get better," Mertens said.