Sports

What losses? Jacks switch focus to playoffs

By Tyler Ohmann

02/25/2014

Despite three close losses and a third place finish in the MonDak Conference, the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) men’s basketball team is not hanging their heads.

“I am excited about what we’ve accomplished this year, we’ve won a lot of games,” said Jacks head coach Cory Fehringer. “We got the games we’re supposed to get, and the games were not necessarily supposed to get, we went down swinging.”

This past week the Jacks fell to three MonDak rivals, all in narrow defeats. Last Monday the Jacks fell 65-60 to North Dakota State College of Science (NDSCS), their first loss at home this season.

On Wednesday DCB traveled to Devils Lake to play against Lake Region State College (LRSC), and the Royals took down the Jacks 72-71 in a nail biter.

Lastly on Sunday the Jacks fell once again at home, this time to Williston State College (WSC) 89-85.

“What we’re talking about is having a short-term memory, but the last three games have prepared us for playing in close games,” Fehringer said. “We lost to skilled players who can make plays, and had good coaches, and hopefully these last few games have hardened our skin.”

The skin-hardening week began last Monday with a showdown against the NDSCS Wildcats at the Woodshed.

Both teams came out tight and the Wildcats held a narrow 27-26 lead at halftime.

Scoring opened up in the second half, and the Jacks were right with the Wildcats throughout, but did not quite have enough to overcome the lead, falling 65-60.

Sophomore Julian Vasquez had a strong performance by scoring 23 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing out seven assists.
Quashingm Smith-Pugh had 20 points to lead the Wildcats, while Trayvon Palmer led all rebounders with 12.

DCB had one of their poorest shooting outputs of the season by shooting only 28.6 percent from the field, including a rare poor 6-for-28 night from beyond the arc.

On the flip side, the Jacks stayed in the game thanks to forcing 19 turnovers, and turning the ball over only 13 times themselves.

On Wednesday the Jacks shot better against the Royals in Devils Lake. However, they were unable to slow down Royals sophomore Melvin Langstaff, and he went off for 32 points on 11-of-15 shooting, and 4-for-6 from three point range.

He helped give LRSC an eight point edge at halftime. DCB stormed back in the second half to narrow the gap, but could not take the lead, and dropped their second straight contest.

DCB closed out the narrow trio of losses with a tough 89-85 defeat at the hands of the WSC Tetons last Sunday.

Both teams battled back and forth throughout the game, and it was tied at halftime at 43.

In the second half the Tetons slipped away, but DCB came back late, and had a would-be game-tying three point opportunity slip out of their grasp.

Despite out shooting and winning the turnover battle the Jacks lost the game. They did get out rebounded 57-35 by the much taller Tetons squad.

Vasquez had 17 points, eight assists and seven rebounds in the losing effort. Xavier Cruz added 16 points off the bench, while Billy Engel and Kolbi Selby made the most of their final regular season game on the court as sophomores. Engel finished with 10 points and five boards, and Selby went 3-for-5 from deep and had 11 points.

However, the Jacks are not dwelling on their three losses.

“I don’t think we’re necessarily concerned about our last three losses,” Fehringer said. “We’re hosting the first round, just like we wanted to, so we accomplished that goal.”

“We just need to keep our eyes on the prize, and right now in the tournament is just survive the first round,” Fehringer added.

DCB will host that opening round against United Tribes Technical College at 7 p.m. tomorrow night at the Woodshed.

A win would have them play again at home on Wednesday for the Region XIII title. That victory would put them one win away from the National Tournament.

“We’ve had several times where we focused our team to try and win three games this season, and focus on the team ahead of you,” Fehringer said. “Right now we’re just focused on Tribes, and getting out of the first round.”

Whatever the case, the Jacks are happy to be playing in front of what is sure to be a loud home crowd.

“Anytime you can be at home, especially with the crowds we’ve been having and the atmosphere in our gym, gives us a tremendous advantage,” Fehringer said. “The word around is that it’s tough to come into the Woodshed and play.”

DCB hopes that tough atmosphere translates into playoff victories.