Marial Deng (Photo by Noah Clooten)
Four Winds/Minnewaukan boys’ basketball is 1-0 in the post-Deng Deng era.
Junior Marial Deng, the now-graduated Deng’s younger brother, had a D. Deng-esque performance with 29 points in their home opener on Saturday. They beat Oak Grove 77-69 in Fargo.
Junior Jonte Delorme exploded for a 15-point second quarter and had 22 overall, while senior Dorvan McKay chipped in with 13. The Indians overcame an early 10-4 deficit and never looked back after taking the lead in the first quarter.
It was a contest of swings to start. Oak Grove committed two fouls almost immediately, and FW/M went up 4-0 on a basket and two successful free throws by Deng.
But Deng missed a layup after a steal, and the Grovers got the ball back. Oak Grove missed a pair of wild three-point attempts before finally putting in a layup to start its scoring. It spiraled into a 10-0 run for the Grovers, who connected on a pair of three-pointers.
Deng tipped one into the basket to end the run. He had the first six Indians points. Sophomore Joran Lohnes joined him with a triple, cutting the deficit to 10-9.
Down 15-11, Deng had a pair of baskets to tie it up. He snatched a loose ball and converted the easy layup for the latter shot, giving him 12 in the quarter. The teams went into the first quarter break all knotted up at 17 after swings in both directions.
McKay got FW/M going in the second quarter, scoring the first four points in what became a 30-16 quarter for the Indians. Oak Grove made it as close as 21-20, but FW/M scored 11 straight points — fueled by three consecutive three-pointers by Delorme.
Delorme had a whopping 15 points in the second quarter. Deng had seven, giving him 19 at the half. Deng had one dunk, helping the Indians lead by as many as 15 at one point. At halftime, their advantage was 47-33.
Oak Grove made the lead as small as 12 in the third quarter. Deng hit a pair of threes, but for more than half of the quarter, the Indians only had two non-Deng points.
Delorme and McKay came alive in the final 90 seconds or so of the quarter. Delorme hit his fourth triple, while McKay had five points to put him in double figures. FW/M racked its lead up to 67-47 heading into the fourth quarter.
Some sloppy passing by the Indians in the fourth quarter helped give the ball back to the Grovers, who swished two more three-pointers to make the score as tight as 71-63. Deng, who scored all 29 of his points in the first three quarters, never found any open looks in the fourth.
FW/M’s lead was still only eight with less than three minutes to go. But Deng blocked a layup and Tyler Black Jr. got the defensive rebound. Black Jr. himself missed a layup, but Sylvester Alberts was right there for the put-back to bring the Indians’ lead back to double digits. Alberts, a freshman, had eight points off the bench. Six of them came in the second half.
Oak Grove kept the gap within 10, but FW/M’s defense shut down any possibility of a full-fledged comeback. The Grovers missed some desperation threes toward the end, and the Indians persevered through a thrilling victory to open the season.
FW/M opens region play Dec. 19 against No. 4 Grafton.
The Indians’ cross-lake rival, Devils Lake, won 89-40 on Friday against Bottineau to start its season. The Firebirds are ranked No. 2 in Class A. The Indians were unranked but did receive votes in the first poll. Devils Lake and FW/M will have two regular-season matchups this winter: Jan. 6 in Devils Lake and Feb. 11 in Fort Totten.
Read more about the outlook of this year’s Firebird and Indian teams in Tuesday’s special Devils Lake Journal sports section.
