The Rainy River Community College men’s and women’s basketball teams had quite the successful evening Wednesday, as they defeated their respective teams from Northland CTC.
The women beat the No. 3 ranked Pioneers 62-58, coming back from a 12 point deficit on two occasions during the game. Later, the men won a close 79-72 victory against the mens’ team from Northland. The wins puts the women’s record at 10-3 and the men’s at 10-5.
Women’s Basketball
Stat leaders for the Lady Voyageurs were:
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Daeja Monroe with 23 points and 4 rebounds
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Vilawn Mobley with 16 points and 6 rebounds
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Tykayla DeGrate with 8 points and 8 rebounds
The Lady Voyageurs started the game hot, scoring five quick points against the Pioneers, but they quickly ran into a problem – a 6’1 problem named Megan Swedberg. The Northland center was giving the Lady Voyageurs trouble on both offense and defense.
Head coach Dieter Humbert said that the way he planned to deal with big posts is to match them up with freshman Tykayla DeGrate.
“Tykayla actually is the one player who can play against a post player, even a big player behind,” said Humbert. “I thought a couple times she made some nice clean blocks, but when you’re coming down on the ball they’re going to call a foul on that.”
Humbert went on to say that during timeouts, he constantly told his team to stay resilient, to not give up easy shots and to keep charging forward toward the hoop.
“I always say that we should be like the willow tree – bend but don’t break,” said Humbert. “I thought that’s exactly what we did all night. We just kept fighting and battling and switching things up on them.”
The first half ended with the Lady Voyageurs trailing Northland 33-27, scoring some key baskets to cut the Pioneer’s lead down before heading into the locker room.
In the second half, Northland used their size to bully the Voyageurs in the paint, jumping out to their second 12-point lead of the game. But Rainy River changed up their defensive strategy again and got some clutch rebounds, bringing the score back into their favor. The Lady Voyageurs were able to pull away from the Pioneers, giving them their second win over a top-10 team in under a week.
The Lady Voyageurs will be back in action today when they host Itasca at 1:00 p.m.
Men’s Basketball
Stat leaders for the Voyageurs during Wednesday’s game were:
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Davarius Wright with 23 points and 3 blocks
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Anthony Mera with 15 points and 3 assists
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Jose Martino with 15 points and 4 rebounds
Both teams came out of the gate fast, but had trouble finding success getting the ball into the basket.
The Pioneers got into a bit of lead heading into the closing minutes of the half, but the Voyageurs eventually were able to respond in kind, putting down some much-needed baskets and dunks.
The Voyageurs ended the half with a controversial call, where a game-tying dunk by sophomore Davarius Wright was ruled as having occurred after the buzzer, giving the Pioneers a 35-33 lead going into halftime.
Head coach Bill Engel said that energy was a main component in the Voyageurs’ game Wednesday and energy the team had, running into the locker room, hollering with smiles on their faces like they were up by 50.
“It’s something we talked about at practice and in the Vermilion game – we just felt like we didn’t have the right energy,” said Engel. “It was to a point where we felt we can’t drop anything new if we don’t play with the right attitude. You can control your attitude and we just thought that everyone was into it.”
The Voyageurs responded with the same energy in the second half, getting some key stops and baskets, eventually pulling so far ahead in the final minutes that the Pioneers had to start fouling to try and capitalize off of some missed free-throws.
The team’s strategy paid off as they prevailed over the Pioneers 79-72.
“Year in and year out Northland is a very good team,” said Engel. “They move the ball well and they cut hard. So if our guys are playing a game like that – a little more of a half court game with a lot more energy – then we can grind it out. We were really excited for our kids to play in that kind of atmosphere.”
The Voyageurs will be back on the court today when they host Itasca at 3:00 p.m.
