A magic touch: Minot drained nine 3-pointers to upend Dickinson
Dickinson High’s reservation at the heartbreak hotel is lasting a little longer than expected.By: Royal McGregor, The Dickinson Press
- Jordan Krieg
Dickinson High’s reservation at the heartbreak hotel is lasting a little longer than expected.
The Minot High boys basketball team shot 53 percent from 3-point range to defeat Dickinson 74-66 in a West Region game on Thursday at DHS gymnasium.
“I feel sorry for them, they deserve to win some of these games,” Dickinson head coach John Wilson said. “I’m very proud to be there coach and I’m very proud that they haven’t given up.”
The heartache has occurred in four of the last six games. However, getting over that hump is one thing senior Tyrell Parker knows his team is capable of doing.
“It’s really tough, especially losing these close games,” Parker said. “I feel like at the same time it still gives us motivation, because we’re almost there. We haven’t gotten over that hump yet, but as soon as we do we’re going to be a good team.”
The Magicians were 9 of 17 from 3-point range and 47 percent from field. The Midgets on the other struggled from beyond the arc making 5 of 21 (24 percent).
“We made shots, which is nice,” Minot head coach Dean Winczewski said. “That’s something that we’ve done at times this year. Our kids do a good job of finding the open man.”
After an eight-point run to end the first half, the Midgets took a 39-38 lead going into halftime. Jordan Krieg’s layup found the bottom of the net as time expired. The junior center finished with a career-high 23 points.
“He’s getting it done, that’s for sure,” Wilson said. “He’s been clutch and he’s been finishing.”
Senior guard Jesse Kessel tallied a career-high 27 points. Wilson said it was Kessel’s strong game of the season.
“I really felt like tonight, Jesse played his mentally best game in a long time,” Wilson said. “I thought he did a lot of things on the offensive end really well. He was trying to force as much. Sometimes I think he puts a lot of pressure on himself to try to make amends for where we are at.”
During halftime, Dickinson didn’t want to lose the momentum they gained in the closing 40 seconds of the first half.
The only facet the Midgets wanted to fix was the 3-point shooting performances by Minot’s Austin Frank and Mitchell Quist.
“The first half we weren’t contesting their 3-point shots very well, so that was a point that coach stressed at halftime,” Krieg said. “We just have to keep playing hard, battling, we just have to close it out.”
Frank posted a team-high 22 points, while going 4 of 7 from 3-point range. Mitchell added 15 points.
After a five-minute stint in the second half where the Midgets struggled from the field and turned the ball over seven times in a row, the Magicians found a lead and held on to it.
“When they went to the zone, we just kind of fell apart a little bit,” Krieg said. “We had like seven turnovers in a row and we can’t have that against good teams. We eventually battled back, but good teams hang on.”
Minot’s other scorers were Kyle Gerding and Colter Hustas each supplied 11 points in the win.
The Midgets are hoping that check-out time is on Thursday when the team travels to Bismarck High. Dickinson nearly defeated the former No. 1-ranked team almost a month ago.
“We are so close and we all believe in ourselves, but the record doesn’t show it,” Krieg said. “Game after game we lose by one or two points and it just gives us more motivation to work hard and keep improving.”
M: Austin Frank 22, Mitchell Quist 15, Kyle Gerding 11, Colter Hustas 11, Kevin Mackey 8, Dylan Jechort 5, Caleb Albertson 2.
D: Jesse Kessel 27Jordan Krieg 23, Austin Fournier 6, Tyrell Parker 4, Luke Hanel 2, Tanner Halter 2, Jon Wanner 2.
Halftime: DHS 39-38. 3-pointers: M 9 (Frank 4, Quist 3, Jechort 1, Gerding 1), D 5 (Kessel 3, Fournier 2). Free throws: M 19-30, D 13-24. Total fouls: M 24, D 19. Fouled out: M, Hustas, VanDusen, D, Fournier, Krieg. Technical fouls: D, Fournier. Rebounds: M 36 (Gerding 8), D 35 (Krieg 10). Assists: M 1 (Quist 1), D 2 (Hanel 1, Kessel 1). Steals: M 11 (Quist 3), D 7 (Kessel 2). Turnovers: M 16, D 16. Records: M 10-4, 8-3 West, D 4-10, 2-10 West.
Tags: high school basketball, dickinson midgets, minot magicians, jordan krieg, sports, basketball
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