The Wadena-Deer Creek Wolverines lost their 19th consecutive game Friday night falling to Detroit Lakes 70-30 in Mid-State Conference action at Wadena.
Activities Director Norm Gallant told the Jeremy Millsop of the Brainerd Dispatch this week that the Wolverines will be leaving the Mid-State to move to the Park Region Conference due to lack of numbers as the school has struggled being the smallest Mid-State school.
The Lakers got scoring from 13 different players led by Ben Hokanson with 10 points in a game that was over early.
DL was up big 39-12 at halftime.
A bigger conference game was going on simultaneously in Crosby where the Staples-Motley Cardinals did a huge favor for DL in defeating Crosby-Ironton 81-73 to hand the Lakers sole possession of first place in the Mid-State at 8-1. The Rangers fall to 6-2. The Cardinals are a game back of the Rangers at 5-3.
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Blake Connell made seven 3-pointers to finish with 30 points. Andrew Israelson added five 3s to score 19. As a team, S-M shot 14-of-20 from 3-point leading to its fifth-straight win.
In the second half, the Cardinals built a 67-49 edge and Daniel Hudrlik fouled out with more than 10 minutes remaining. That's when C-I finally woke up and Noah Gindorff took over. The sophomore post finished with 30 points on 12-of-13 shooting, including 2-of-3 from 3-point. He also grabbed 14 rebounds, seven blocked shots and three steals. He and senior point guard Brady Tesdahl accounted for 31 of the Rangers' 42 second-half points as Tesdahl finished with 16 points, 11 coming in the second half.
C-I cut the Cardinals' lead to 69-65 with 3:22 left in the game, but Connell took over hitting a big 3 followed by a free throw, layup and then another 3 that broke any hope C-I had of coming all the way back.
(Jeremy Millsop contributed to this story)
Laker results
Detroit Lakes at Wadena-Deer Creek, Friday, Jan. 30
DL 39 31 - 70
WDC 12 18 - 30
Scoring
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DL - Connor Johnson 5, Sam Champa 2, C.J. Manning 2, Corbin Duncan 2, Christian Hedstrom 2, Jacob Richter 7, Nick Nordmark 10, Matt Haire 5, Austin Dodd 3, Try Lyngaas 7, Jacob Pazdernik 5, Ben Hokanson 14, Briton Thompson 6
W/DC - Konnor Stueve 2, Jack Goeden 7, Alex Carlson 5, Wyatt Fitzsimmons 3, Joseph Wallgren 2, Alex Redfield 2, Noah Ross 5, Dacotah Mittag 2, Ryan Anderson 2
Staples-Motley at Crosby-Ironton, Friday, Jan. 30
S-M 48 33 - 81
C-I 31 42 - 73
Scoring
S-M - Gavin Smith 13, Blake Connell 30, Zack Hofmann 7, Andrew Israelson 19, Trey Skeesick 2, John Lund 10
C-I - Jack Silgen 7, Evan Edmundson 5, Brady Tesdahl 16, Ben Jordan 9, Noah Gindorff 30, Daniel Hudrlik 6
