The Laker defense clamped down on No. 9-2A Crosby-Ironton (0-1), one of the last teams in the state to get the season started, and the Rangers trailed for most of the game in a 60-50 Detroit Lakes Mid-State Conference victory at Ralph Anderson Gymnasium Friday night.
Christian Hedstrom continued his hot shooting from outside and was also able to penetrate the Ranger paint when necessary en route to a team-high 23 points.
Ben Hokanson had the play of the game with a steal and breakaway two-handed dunk that pushed a Laker lead back to double digits at 49-38 late in the second half.
“We’ve got a lot of weapons and a lot of ways to hurt people,” said Hokanson. “We’ve got to work on our defense a little more and then we have potential.”
Ryan Cihak cleaned up the waning minutes with his second three-pointer of the game and a 4-4 performance at the line to keep the Rangers at bay.
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Hedstrom scored a dozen of his 23 in the first half to provide an early spark for the second consecutive game. He drained five threes and has led DL in scoring all three games.
Hedstrom is averaging 21.3 points per game.
The continual rotation of the Laker bench was evident in how DL dictated play and forced the Rangers to play an uptempo style.
“We can run five in, five out, whatever we need to do got get them going,” said Hokanson. “They’re not a very deep team so we tried to run a lot to get them tired.”
Sam Champa drew the defensive assignment of keeping tabs on talented C-I senior Daniel Hudrlik. Hudrlik was held to six points and fouled out with 7:48 to play. He was victimized by two questionable calls from the referee, but the game was being called tightly around player contact. His fifth foul was more a display of frustration from a guy typically scoring 20 points a game, not able to get into a rhythm.
Sophomore Noah Gindorff picked up the slack scoring 23 points to lead Crosby-Ironton. Fellow sophomore Jack Silgen scored 10.
“We knew (Hudrlik) was a really good player, so we focused on him to start,” Hokanson said. “Once their other big guy got going we had to change it up a little bit.”
The Laker defense was disruptive holding the Rangers scoreless for the opening six minutes of the second half coming out of the halftime break with the Lakers up a deuce 27-25.
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By the time C-I scored, the Rangers were down 11 points. Hedstrom immediately answered with his fourth three-pointer to keep the cushion at 39-27.
The Rangers tried to press a lineup of mostly big men for DL in the final three minutes of the game. Laker head coach Robb Flint went to a smaller unit and the Lakers improved to 3-0 with a comfortable 10-point lead as time ticked down.
DL was 11-18 from the free throw line; C-I made nine of 13.
The Lakers complete a season-opening four-game homestand looking to sweep all four games when a struggling Wadena Deer-Creek Wolverines team comes to town Tuesday, Dec. 9 looking for their first victory. The Wolverines are 0-4 and have been held below 40 points per game in three contests.
Laker results
C-I 25 25 - 50
DL 27 33 - 60
Scoring:
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C-I: Gindorff 23, Silgen 10, Hudrlik 6, Jacobs 4, Tesdahl 4, Edmundson 3
DL: Hedstrom 23, Cihak 14, Hokanson 11, Duncan 4, Richter 3, Johnson 2, Lyngaas 2, Champa 1
