Volk’s well-rounded effort leads No. 10 Dickinson Trinity past Beach

• Jacob Volk

Press Photo by Dustin Monke Dickinson Trinity junior Jacob Volk, right, puts up a shot over Beach sophomore Anthony Weinreis on Tuesday during a Region 7 boys basketball game at Knights of Columbus Activities Center. Volk had 28 points, seven steals, six rebounds and three blocks as the Titans won 53-32.

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Dickinson Trinity head coach Gregg Grinsteinner wanted to see more out of Jacob Volk defensively.

The junior guard obliged Tuesday night.

Volk finished with a career-high 28 points and added seven steals, six rebounds and three blocks as the No. 10-ranked Titans remained unbeaten and handed the Beach boys basketball team its first loss of the season, 53-32, at Knights of Columbus Activities Center.

“His defense makes his offense go,” Grinsteinner said of Volk. “I thought he let the game really come to him tonight.”

Volk knew he had to improve defensively despite coming off an otherwise strong performance in the Roughrider Tournament.

“Before the game, I was thinking I need to get better on the defensive end,” Volk said. “I was talked to by some of my teammates that they needed me to improve on the defensive end.”

He wasn’t the only Titan to play well on that side of the ball though.

Trinity forced 22 turnovers through its stifling full-court defense and limited Beach all-state center Landon Lechler on both ends for much of the game.

The 6-foot-8 senior had team highs of 15 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks. But, he was held to just seven points through three quarters as his touches in the half-court were kept to a minimum by Trinity’s transition defense.

“We’ve been practicing, since day one this year, pressure,” Beach head coach Troy Hoffer said. “Full-court pressure, whether it’s man-to-man press, a zone press. We’ve been pressed before. But they’re so athletic and so deep. I was disappointed in our poise, but we learn from it and move on.”

The Buccaneers fell to 5-1 on the season while Trinity improves to 5-0 with home games against Bowman County and Mott-Regent scheduled for Friday night and Saturday afternoon, respectively.

Trinity didn’t appear to have many problems against Beach, either.

Volk scored 10 points in the first quarter to spark the Titans to a 15-9 lead and opened the second quarter with three-point play after he was fouled on a fast-break dunk.

He had 18 points at halftime as the Titans built a 29-15 lead. Beach scored just three points in the third quarter as Trinity built a 41-18 advantage.

“Our effort on defense improved a lot the last two days,” Volk said. “We’ve been working on guarding the big guy over the last week. We were pretty prepared for this one.”

Beach 9 15 18 32

Trinity 15 29 41 53

B: Landon Lechler 15, Lloyd Weinreis 6, Danny Skoglund 4, Boston Zachmann 4, Tyler Steffan 3.

T: Jacob Volk 28, Dylan Fridrich 8, Isiah Binstock 4, Jesse Kubik 4, Austin Gawryluk 3, Alex Binstock 2, Brady Fettig 2, Brandon Sickler 2.

3-pointers: B 0, T 3 (Volk 3). Free throws: B 4-10, T 6-7. Total fouls: B 9, T 14. Rebounds: B 28 (Lechler 12), T 35 (I. Binstock 7). Assists: B 7 (Lechler 2, Skoglund 2), T 14 (Sickler 3, I. Binstock 3). Steals: B 10 (L. Weinreis 3), T 17 (Volk 7). Blocks: B 5 (Lechler 4), T 5 (Volk 3). Turnovers: B 22, T 16. Records: Trinity 5-0, Beach 5-1.

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