Sports
Putting in the work
Matthew Semisch
11/25/2014
The Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) men’s college basketball team hasn’t experienced the smoothest sailing through their first 10 games of this season.
However, with the Lumberjacks sitting at 8-2 on the season, first-year head coach Brandon Colvin is pleased with his Lumberjacks’ current trajectory.
DCB kept the good times rolling last weekend when it hosted the Cobblestone Classic. The Lumberjacks outlasted Northland (Minn.) 83-74 on Friday night at the Woodshed before soundly defeating the junior varsity team from Concordia (Minn.) 107-90 the following evening.
Friday gave the Jacks their biggest challenge of the weekend. DCB’s offense struggled to get going in the first half against Northland, and the teams found themselves tied 37-37 at the interval.
Once the second half started, though, DCB began to pull away from the Pioneers. The Jacks improved significantly on both sides of the ball after halftime, and a visibly relieved Colvin felt that that was a key contributing factor in his team’s win.
“Relieved is a good way to put it,” he said. “We were tied at the half and came out in the second half and kept defending how we needed to.
“Offensively we attacked how we needed to, too, in that second half and got the passes we needed to get in order to get some easy baskets, and those weren’t really coming earlier.”
The Jacks ended up getting balanced scoring on Friday throughout much of its lineup. DCB guard Patrick Robinson finished with a team-high 18 points, but four of the Jacks’ five starters ended in double-digits.
DCB returned to the Woodshed court on Saturday and fired on all cylinders against Concordia. The Jacks looked more than comfortable at halftime with its 56-40 lead and kept pouring it on in the second half.
The Cobbers had no real defensive answer for DCB all night. Jacks guard Jalyn Turner finished with a team high 35 points and hit six of his seven three-point shots, and forward Keouvion McCalop had a big night in posting 28 points.
“We just needed to work on defense going into tonight, and everything else worked itself out,” McCalop said after Saturday’s game. “We had some stuff to work on there, but overall we’ve been pretty good.
“I felt like we did a great job tonight. We worked hard for what we got.”
Colvin said he was pleased with the way his Jacks’ work ethic has kept progressing.
“I’m proud of the way our guys played. A lot of good things can happen when you just work hard for a full game,” he said. “As we can keep building and get to the point where we’re putting in full 40-minute efforts, we’ll be a very good team by the time conference season gets here.”
“We’re 8-2, and I’ll take having a lot more wins than losses. We’re learning slowly but surely, and we’re not at the speed we need to be, but if we continue to build on this, we’ll be doing well. We know now how hard we need to be working and how hard we’ve got to play, and that’s what we’re aiming for.”
The Jacks will travel to Sheridan, Wyo. this week to face Sheridan and Little Big Horn.