Dawson Wallops Royals

We all face crossroads in our lives where we can retreat into ourselves, or we can hit the dance floor. — Sebastian Lelio

Basketball can be similar to a dance. The stage is the court, where the lights are brightest and highlights those 10 players whose athleticism can sometimes only be described as synchronized contemporary. 

In Lake Region State College's 97-53 loss to Dawson Community College on Sunday, Feb. 9, the dance itself wasn't pretty which led to the Royals facing a potential breaking point.

"For the first time this second half of the season, I kind of saw our heads drop, our shoulders drop and that's not us and I kind of called them out on it," said Royals head coach Jared Marshall.

The Royals, who have been playing with an eight-man roster since returning from the Christmas break, has won three games and kept a few other games close, such as an 11 and 12 point losses to Miles Community College and United Tribes Technical College respectively. However, against the top team in the Mon-Dak, it became too much.

The Royals (9-17, 3-7) made the first field goal of the game just over three minutes into the game. Seven minutes later, the Royals were down 22 and never got any closer.

"The biggest thing is that we didn't make shots, especially in the first half when they got a little hot," Marshall said. The Royals went 9 of 38 from the field over the first 20 minutes and only went to the free-throw line once, when Beau Feltman completed a 3-point play with 8:16 remaining until halftime. It was the Royals 11th point of the game. Lake Region State College finished the half with 20 and trailed by 32.

"I thought the guys responded better in the second half, our body language was better and there were a lot more positivity but we still struggled to make shots," said Marshall.

The Royals finished the game shooting 22-for-71. Both Myles Arnold and Feltman each finished with 11 points. Arnold also had seven rebounds and four assists. Leif Nelson (Devils Lake) and Josh Khile had 10 points apiece. Nelson also had eight rebounds.

Thirteen players scored for the Buccaneers, led by Devin Collins 17 points. Collins also had eight rebounds and five assists. Beau Santistevan and Camron Dunfee scored 14 points each for the Buccaneers who increased their winning streak to 11 games and improved to 21-6 overall and 10-0 in the Mon-Dak.

"This was a crossroads game, this was a crossroads life thing for us. We can either let it go downhill and break us apart or bring us closer together and toughen us up," Marshall said. "Where's it going to go from here? It is either going to tear us apart or bring us closer together."