Sports
DCB soars past Mikinocks
Matthew Semisch
11/11/2014
BELCOURT - Through its first three games of this season, Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) men’s basketball head coach Brandon Colvin felt his team’s best had yet to come.
The wins were certainly there, and DCB hadn’t yet lost a game. That run continued on Wednesday when the Lumberjacks routed Turtle Mountain Community College (TMCC) 111-82 in Belcourt.
It was the second time in DCB’s first three games that the Jacks hit the 100-point mark. They also reached the century point during a 115-61 win over Canadian Mennonite University on Nov. 1.
Even with all that in mind, though, what Colvin said he hadn’t seen yet this season was a complete 40-minute performance from his team.
If that’s true, it’s almost scary to consider what the Jacks might look like once it happens.
DCB didn’t run into a whole lot of trouble on Wednesday against the Mikinocks. After taking a 19-point lead into the locker room at halftime, the Jacks took their feet off the gas slightly in the second half but hardly allowed TMCC back into the game.
Enough pressure was let off, however, to leave Colvin feeling his team hadn’t put in a complete performance against what was clearly a lesser opponent.
“We played really hard in spurts and especially defensively, but for some reason we still haven’t been able to put it all together for 40 minutes,” Colvin said. “I just think that, until we play somebody that’s on the same level as us and matches our depth one through five or one through seven and is better than us in some spots, our guys aren’t going to see where we need to improve.
“I give a lot of credit to Turtle Mountain, though, because they played hard until the end and played their butts off.”
Try though the Mikinocks did, they were outclassed by a much more talented DCB team. Five of the Jacks’ nine players that recorded minutes on Wednesday reached double-digits in scoring.
Forward Keouvion McCalop led DCB’s starters with 25 points to go along with his nine rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots. Freshman guard Louis Williams came off the bench and posted 25 points of his own.
Another guard, DCB sophomore Gilbert Carter, racked up 24 points, eight assists and six steals against the Mikinocks.
The Jacks were playing with a short bench at TMCC on Wednesday night. Forwards Darion Hancock and Julian Short and guards Shaquille Carlyle and Kristoff Walker were all unavailable.
DCB picked up other key performances off of the bench. Freshmen guards Joe Baker and Lorne Jay only picked up a combined six points against the Mikinocks, but both did a good job of keeping TMCC’s shooters in check.
Colvin is looking forward to having his full team healthy and set to go again, but he was pleased with the secondary efforts the Jacks picked up on Wednesday.
“I’d like to get back to full strength, but our bench guys did really well today and stepped up,” Colvin said. “Joe and Loren were both really big for our team and munched up a lot of minutes out there for us.
“That tonight was the best Joe’s played and that’s the best Loren’s played, too, and hopefully they’ll both be able to continue on from that and keep stepping up for us.”
The gap between the teams by the end of the game could have been even wider than it was. The Lumberjacks only drained seven of 25 three-point attempts.
Despite that and a handful of short lapses, Colvin was able to take positives from the game.
“We’ve got stuff to clean up,” Colvin said. “Even still, I’m happy with the win and, at the end of the day, we’re 3-0.
“Every boss you’ll ever have when you’re a coach will tell you a win’s a win, and it’s good to be where we are right now, and hopefully we can keep it going from here on.”