No Place Like Home for Lady Royals

Article by Chris Harris, Devils Lake Journal Sports, February 1st, 2019

Stephanie Miller scored 20 points, was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free-throw line and the Lake Region State College won for the second time in five games as they defeated Dakota College at Bottineau 68-53.

"For a lot of things we've been working on, we did a lot of good things," said Royals head coach Danny Mertens.

The Royals, who defeated the Lumberjacks by 18 in the previous meeting exactly two weeks ago, controlled the game from the beginning, taking an early 7-0 lead before DCB came back to cut the lead to one at 9-8. The Royals went up 10 after a Kendall Parker 3-pointer with 3:23 left in the first half and held a 14 point lead early in the third quarter.

However, the Lumberjacks were able to get the game within single digits in the fourth quarter despite making just six field goals in the second half. Dakota Bottineau was able to stay within striking distance by going 15-of-20 from the free-throw line in the second half. The Lumberjacks finished 17-of-26 from the charity stripe.

"It's hard," Mertens began about DCB's second half free throw shooting. "It isn't necessarily anything we were doing wrong, it was the way the officials called it. We needed to do a better job and adjust."

The Royals led 50-43 with 7:54 remaining in the contest but went on an 11-0 run that was bookended by Telesia Manumaleuga 3s that put the game out of reach.

Maara Nelson finished with 14 points and three rebounds. Jayden Pollert had nine points and seven rebounds and Manumaleuga finished with eight points as the Royals improved to 16-8 overall and 4-3 in the MonDak.

Victoria Obergfell scored 17 points and had seven rebounds for the Lumberjacks (10-13, 0-7).