Fourth Game of the Week Gets the Royals

Down second leading scorer Myles Arnold due to an ankle injury, Lake Region State College used another starting lineup against North Dakota State College of Science Sunday, Jan. 26 and the depleted Royals lineup was too much to overcome as the Wildcats easily took down LRSC 84-58 from the Sports Center.

It was the Royals fourth game in a week that began with a loss to Bismarck State College on last Monday, Jan. 20 followed by three straight home games including a rescheduled game against Dakota College at Bottineau this past Friday.

"Getting a couple of wins this week were huge," said Royals coach Jared Marshall. The Royals got wins over the Mystics last Monday and over the Lumberjacks on Friday. The Royals finished the week at .500, also losing to United Tribes Technical College. "We're right in the middle of the pack in Mon-Dak play and I think a lot of people wrote us off but these guys said 'no, we're right here and we're going to keep coming.

"So I'm proud of them for that."

Devils Lake freshman Jacob Greene, who replaced Arnold in the starting lineup against the Wildcats didn't score any points but had three rebounds, two assists and a steal. The Royals (8-14, 2-4 MonDak) built a 11-4 lead after back-to-back baskets by Dion Ford. But the Wildcats went on a 25-2 run that was culminated by a 3-pointer and a dunk by Duoth Gach.

The Wildcats led 41-27 at halftime and never looked back.

"Our fatigued showed. The biggest thing is that we didn't quit. We battled, we fought and just kept bringing it to them. We made it a dogfight," Marshall said. 

"It was something that we had to do to be successful and I was proud at how hard we played and the way we did."

Ford scored 25 points and had six rebounds to lead the Royals, who were missing Arnold's 19.3 points per game that he has averaged over the previous four games. Beau Feltman had 16 points and Devils Lake's Leif Nelson finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

The Royals committed 30 turnovers and forced only 10 from the Wildcats.

Gach went 9 of 17 from 3-point range and finished with 31 points and Diang Gatluak had 15 points, nine rebounds and five assists for the Wildcats (17-3, 5-1).