Sports

Jacks split at Northland Classic to open second half of season

By Tyler Ohmann

01/10/2012

Two vastly different games produced different results for the Dakota College at Bottineau men’s basketball team this past weekend at a tournament in Minnesota.

The Jacks used a high-powered offense to clip Rainy River Community College 103-95 on Friday evening, but then were upended 64-53 in a defensive struggle by host Northland Community and Technical College.

In Friday’s second half opener the Jacks out scored Rainy River 12-4 in overtime to get their eighth win of the season. Sophomore Jeremy Chambers got his most important basket of the season with three seconds left to force overtime.

Chambers finished with 13 points.
The shape that DCB was in may have helped in the win.

“Overall all we were concerned that our conditioning might be compromised, however it is obvious that our players stayed somewhat active over the long layoff over the Christmas break,” Jacks Head Coach Ken Keysor stated.

Freshman Jayden McMillin was a juggernaut inside for the Jacks. He finished with 28 points and 20 rebounds in the win. Sophomores Cameron Malzer (16) and Josh Vedaa (11) were also in double digits for the Jacks.
Keysor was happy with the comeback effort.

“As a coach you are always proud of your team when they don’t hang their heads and just put the coveralls on and continue to work hard in blue collar fashion,” Keysor stated.

The Jacks out rebounded Rainy River 58-52, but shot an unsually poor 28 percent from three-point range. Keysor said the layoff may have been to blame for the lackluster effort from long range.

“Coming out of the break we obviously were a little rusty from beyond the three point line,but we really attacted the basket hard,” Keysor stated.

The Jacks were hoping for a similar result in Saturday’s contest against the host Northland Community Technical College. Instead they found themselves in a physical battle, and wound up with an 11-point defeat.

“We knew that this would be a physical game and in the end we just didn’t take care of business,” Keysor stated.

The Jacks fell behind early and were unable to make a recovery in the second half as NCTC out scored them by eight in the second half. Keysor said poor offensive rebounding was to blame.

“Rebounds certainly were a concern as they had 17 offensive rebounds and we only had five,” Keysor stated. “We didn’t get very effective positioning out of our post players.  We certainly need our bigs to make sure they are rebounding their area with zealousness on every missed shot.”

McMillin had yet another double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Vedaa and Chambers each had nine in the loss. Malzer finished with five points, six rebounds and four assists.

The Jacks blew a sizeable lead, and Keysor pointed toward lack of aggression as the cause.

“Offensively we became complacent when we built a nine-point lead and then we just stood around.  We are certainly improving each game, but this is one that I felt we had an opportunity to win,” Keysor stated. “We just didn’t do enough of the little things and that comes back to me.  We are still getting to know expectations of each player, but we know that now is the time to find the remedy for any ills we might have.”

The Jacks are now 8-9 on the season. They will participate in the Turtle Mountain Community College shoot out next Saturday and Sunday in Belcourt. Game times are yet to be determined.