Another ranked team, another tight game.
This time, the Dickinson High boys basketball team came out with the win.
After nearly knocking off No. 3 Bismarck St. Mary’s last week, the Midgets upset No. 2-ranked Minot 72-68 Friday night at DHS gymnasium.
“That was awesome, we played St. Mary’s down six and I said earlier that week we were going into practice confident and we put in work and got two back to back,” Dickinson junior guard Mark Erickson said. “Got a big one in Williston (on Thursday) and a huge one here tonight.”
After a buzzer-beating layup by Minot senior Colter Hustad to put his team up 35-34 at halftime, Dickinson wasted no time recapturing its lead as Erickson drained a 3-pointer to make it a 37-35 game. The junior guard finished with a game-high 20 points.
Dickinson built a small seven-point lead over Minot with 9 minutes, 16 seconds to go in the game but the Magicians outscored the team 10-1 to retake the lead - with shots from Jacob Holman, Hustad and Nick Soltis - for the first time since the half.
“They’re a really good basketball team and you got to give a lot of credit to them and their coaching,” Dickinson junior post Luke Herauf said. They started hitting a lot of shots during crunch time but we just held on.”
With 4:28 left, and shots going back and forth, Dickinson freshman guard Aanen Moody hit a 3-pointer for the 61-60 permanent lead.
Minot threatened with under a minute left as Noah Bosh sank both his free throws, but Moody made a pass inside the paint to Herauf for the game-clinching layup with 11 seconds left.
Five Midgets ended in double-figures and combined for 70 points with Erickson’s 20 followed by Moody with 16, Herauf added 12 and seniors Parker Egli and Levi Jordheim each recorded 11.
Dickinson shot 27 for 54 including 10 of 17 (59 percent) from beyond the arc.
“Dickinson played harder than we did, they executed better, they made more shots, they deserve to win,” Minot head coach Dean Winczewski said. “They did everything they were supposed to and got to give them credit.”
In the first half, the Midgets took the 2-0 lead and held on for the next 17:45 minutes. But with 3:41 to go and the team up by eight, the Magicians came back to tighten its deficit to just one point after junior guard Dakota Halvorson drained a 3 with under a minute left and Hustad with the layup to take the lead into the half.
Hustad finished with a double-double on the night with 19 points and 11 rebounds and went 8 for 16 from the floor.
Dickinson has had a trying season, going 0-8 before securing its first win of the season away at Mandan. But since, the Midgets have found a new wave of confidence and have battled top-tier teams until the end. Head coach John Wilson said his boys have been patient and deserve this win and surge of success.
“We deserve this because we’ve been working so hard and come so short so many times,” Wilson said. “I told them to keep believing that those lessons we learned early on are going to come back and help us some time, and how we executed those last four minutes tonight in a very crucial time was huge.”
The Midgets look to continue their success with a third-straight win traveling to Bismarck High at 5:45 p.m. Thursday.
“We played them pretty close here, but going there, it’s a hard place to play we’ll go in we’ll keep trying to do what we’ve been doing and maybe steal one there too,” Erickson said.
M: Colter Hustad 19, Dakota Halvorson 17, Kolton Larson 11, Nick Soltis 7, Noah Bosh 5, Ben Bolinske 5, Jacob Holman 3, Seidman 1.
D: Mark Erickson 20, Aanen Moody 16, Luke Herauf 12, Parker Egli 11, Levi Jordheim 11, Dylan Skabo 2.
Halftime score M 35-34. 3-pointers: M 6 (Bosh 1, Halvorson 4, Hustad 1), D 10 (Erickson 4, Egli 2, Moody 4). Free throws: M 14-19, D 8-13. Total fouls: M 13, D 18. Rebounds: M 35 (Hustad 11), D 39 (Herauf 7). Assists: M 7 (Halvorson, Holman 2), D 20 (Skabo 9). Steals: M 3 (Halvorson, Hustad, Seidman), D 6 (Skabo 3). Blocks: M 2 (Hustad), D none. Turnovers: M 13, D 11.
