Lakers press Rangers and snap skid with a blowout victory

The Rangers struggled against a hectic full-court press employed by DL. The Lakers turned over the C-I offense and capitalized with easy buckets to pull away.

The Lakers continued an impressive defensive style that gave undefeated Perham a run Thursday night. While DL did not get the win down highway 10, they carried momentum from that effort to the court Friday.

“We played really well against Perham and we wanted to come out tonight and just destroy them right away,” Laker senior Tanner Doppler said.

The Rangers hung in the game in the first half. DL went to the break with a five-point lead 26-21.

DL’s poor shooting from the field has been part of the reason the Lakers came into the game on a seven-game losing streak. That ended in theopening five minutes of the second half.

“We know we’re a good team; we just need to make shots,” said Doppler.

Everything dropped starting with a Jake Bettcher field goal and a Doppler three to get up 31-23. Connor Froke stole the ball at half-court and made an uncontested layup to stretch the lead to 10 points and force a timeout from Rangers’ head coach David Galovich.

Froke and Doppler followed the timeout with back-to-back buckets and Bettcher nailed two straight threes from in front of the Laker bench to stretch the lead to 20 points 43-23 at the 13-minute mark.

C-I never recovered from DL’s pressure and battled through a double-digit deficit the remainder of the game.

“We wanted to come out fast against these guys and get all of our subs in,” Doppler said. “It was a good night for us.”

DL made full five-man substitutions as the half wore on and fresh legs made the going tough for the visitors.

On the offensive end, DL moved the ball around the outside finding the open man and creating in the paint to get to the line. A few changes made in practice this week has been a boon to what used to be a team that struggled to score.

“We put in a couple new plays at practice,” said Doppler. “We wanted to swing the ball around and get good looks.”

The Lakers nearly matched the Rangers’ point total for the game in the second half alone scoring 43 points in the final 18 minutes.

Doppler led all scorers with 21 points. Bettcher added a dozen and Jackson Haire has been strong on both ends of the floor the past two games. He scored 10 points.

C-I had three shooters in double figures: Kyle Skeim scored 16, Jonathan Jacobson added 13 and Isaac Burly scored 12.

The Rangers drop to .500 overall at 7-7 and are 2-3 in the Mid-State. DL evened their conference mark to 2-2 and improved to 3-8 overall.

DL continues conference play Tuesday, Jan. 16 at home against Pequot Lakes (9-2). The Lakers will look to avenge and early-season pounding at Pequot 70-45 in mid-December. The Patriots are 5-0 in the Mid-State.

CI  21 26 - 47

DL 26 43 - 69

C-Sam Jordan 1, Cayden Turk 5, Isaac Burley 12, Jonathan Jacobson 13, Kyle Skeim 16.

D-Tanner Doppler 21, Jake Bettcher 12, Jackson Haire 10, Connor Froke 7, Logan Pratt 6, Tate Kerzman 4, Ben Stearns 3, Max Gunderson 2, Jake Kerzman 2, Ethan Schweigart 2.