Royals Basketball Hosted UTTC & Miles This Past Week

The LRSC Basketball teams hosted UTTC on Saturday the 20th & Miles the Monday the 22nd.

First up, the women's games vs. UTTC & Miles. In their first game against UTTC, the Lady Royals came away with a 54-48 victory! After giving up almost 90 points the last time the two teams played, the LRSC defense tightened up against the Thunderbirds. Holding UTTC to 27% shooting from the field and 22% from behind the arc carried them to victory. Kayla Byrne had 16pts, Maddy Leaf had 13pts along with 9rebs 4ast 3stls and Averi chipped in 10pts 5rebs

Next up was Miles, and the Pioneers were able to pull away in the 2nd half to gain a 86-70 victory over the Royals. LRSC, down 3 at half surrendered a 33 point 3rd quarter to MCC which ended up being the difference in the game. Maddy Leaf had 20pts and Laura Ribo came off the bench and exploded for 16pts.

Head Coach Danny Mertens had this to say about the games, "I thought we played so much harder these last two games. Our effort and intensity jumped up a notch. Miles won the regular season championship and we were right with them the whole way. Just need to clean up some mistakes in the 3rd quarter. Then against Tribes we held them defensively, didn't let them get into what they wanted to do. It was a great job by the team."

For the men's games, they would snag wins in both of them. Against UTTC, the Royals would pull off an 80-64 victory. LRSC Would lead start to finish and used a big first half to seal the victory. Balanced scoring all around for Lake Region. Trace Evans was the standout with 14pts and 5rebs. Carson Henningsgard & Beijan Newbern both chipped in 10pts. Djordje Mitrovic added 7pts and 6rebs in an all around performance off the bench.

Against Miles, there were major playoff implications on the line. With their win, LRSC put themselves in the drivers seat for a home playoff game after squeaking out a 76-75 win over Miles. The Royals would dominate in the post using a big night from Trace Evans 14pts 5 rebs and Brody Kriesel 13pts 11rebs to establish themselves. This opened up things for Ben Hoverson who would nail 5 3's throughout the game on his way to 18pts. 

Head Coach Jared Marshall said this about the games, "Two good wins by our guys. I am pleased with how we played for the most part. I wish we would have finished both games better as we got a little sloppy at the end of each. During the Miles game we really showed our grit, down four points with four to go we rattled off a six point run and never gave the lead back. Impressive effort by our guys."

The women (5-14) and men (12-8) will be back in action at the sportscenter on Wednesday night to take on the Mystics from Bismarck State College at 5:30pm and 7:30pm. 

Go Royals!