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United Tribes Wins Region XIII Championship

Thunderbirds advance to District Championship

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The United Tribes men's basketball team celebrates after completing their Region XIII championship game victory over Dakota College at Bottineau on Sunday. JOSH DUNGAN
The United Tribes men's basketball team celebrates after completing their Region XIII championship game victory over Dakota College at Bottineau on Sunday. JOSH DUNGAN
March 4, 2024
Josh Dungan, Bismarck Tribune

When United Tribes men's basketball head coach Pete Conway first took the job back in March 2015, he had his sights set on ending the program's national tournament drought.

Until Sunday afternoon, the closest Conway and the Thunderbirds had gotten was multiple cracks at a region title, falling agonizingly short in each of the past two seasons when they lost the Region XIII Championship game by a combined four points across the two seasons, including buzzer beater and a three-point loss to Dakota County Technical College in overtime last year.

Agony was replaced by triumph and smiles at the end of this year's Region XIII championship game, as the Thunderbirds beat Dakota College-Bottineau for the fourth time this season, 72-64, at James Henry Gymnasium.

 "It was a complete contrast from our game yesterday, where we came out and scored all those points, today points were hard to come by," United Tribes head coach Pete Conway said. "It's the fourth time we played each other, so we knew everything about each other. It was an old-fashioned Mon-Dak conference battle there, with two teams that like to score points.
 
"Coming down the stretch it was looking like it would come down to one possession, maybe overtime or a buzzer-beater like the last couple years."

Earning Region XIII tournament MVP efforts for his play, Cayden Redfield had a big game in leading the Thunderbirds to the title, dropping a game-high 24 points, grabbing eight rebounds, dishing out two assists and nabbing a steal.

 Conway was named Region Coach of the Year and Jacolby Pearson (11 points, four rebounds, two assists, one steal) and Houston Davis (10 points, five rebounds, three assists, four steals) earned All-Region honors.

"Those postseason honors are great, but they're team honors, we don't get things like tournament MVP without winning this game," Conway said. "Without getting contributions from everybody, you're not getting Coach of the Year."

Sunday's title bout against the Lumberjacks couldn't have been any different from Saturday's semifinal against Gogebic Community College.

 Taking on the Samsons for the first time since last year's Region XIII semifinal, United Tribes shot the lights out in a 151-107 win where they made 60 of their 119 shots, grabbed 68 rebounds and shot 21-of-54 from three.
 
Leading the way in the semifinal were Davis (29 points, four rebounds, one assist), Mark Fassett (23 points, nine rebounds, one assist), Hudda Curry (20 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, one steal, one block) and Trae Hugs (17 points, five rebounds, 11 assists, three steals).
 On Sunday, the Mon-Dak rivals couldn't even crack double digit threes combined, as Bottineau made 3-of-22 shots and United Tribes was only one better, hitting 4-of-28.

"We had to play defense and rebound, and I thought we did a pretty good job on their two high-scoring guards," Conway said of Bottineau's Brendan Redhead and Max Groom, who averaged 23.5 and 19.8 points per game, respectively, but who were held to 22 and 15 points on Sunday. "We were hoping some of the offensive firepower would carry over to today, but I don't know that we made more than one three-pointer in the second half. We had good looks, but things weren't falling and when that happens, your defense and rebounding can keep you in the game, and that was the case today."

Where Saturday's win did give the Thunderbirds an advantage was in minutes played.
 
Able to go 13 deep on their bench in a wildly successful day on offense, only Jacolby Pearson played more than 19 minutes, and 10 of the 13 players for United Tribes that saw action played less than 18 minutes.

Dakota College-Bottineau had a much less easy go of it against Dakota County Technical College in their semifinal, playing all of their starters at least 27 minutes and likely only having it not be five of five because of Phil Gibaut fouling out in an 88-79 win.

Beating a team four times in a season suggests there's something that the winning team has that the losing team doesn't, and Conway fully believes depth was the reason behind Tribes being able to hold off the Lumberjacks on Sunday.

"Bottineau had some guys who had to play heavy minutes both nights, they had a rough and physical game against Dakota County," Conway said. "We talked pregame about wearing them down, we talked about wearing them down because we were fresher, we didn't have a guy play much yesterday, and we figured we'd be able to wear them down at the end.

"We were a little deeper than they were, we had guys that we could bring in and sub with some versatility, but they were relying on their two guards."

But as with any Mon-Dak matchup, nothing came easy for the Thunderbirds.

Bottineau opened the game on an 8-2 run, with United Tribes responding right back with a 10-0 run to take a 12-8 lead with 13:40 to go.

The Thunderbirds took the largest lead of the first half at 35-26 with 1:34 to go, but Bottineau cut the lead back down to 35-32 before the intermission buzzer sounded.

"(Playing a team four times) makes it easier for scouting, we don't have to go over a lot, but it's a blessing and a curse, playing a team four times, because it's hard to beat a team four times in the same season," Conway said. "We talked every time we played Bottineau that we have to contest everything, make sure we're good on the help side defense, and while they'll make shots, they have to work for everything they get."

For all the troubles both teams had scoring at times, the game remained tight throughout the second half, though after Tribes pushed into the lead with that first half run, they never quite surrendered the lead back to the Lumberjacks, with the closest Bottineau came to re-taking the lead being when they tied the game at 54-all with eight minutes to go.

"(Bottineau) is a team that can score in a hurry with (Redhead and Groom) out there, and that's basketball, we always tried to answer their runs with one of our own," Conway said. "I told the guys after Saturday's game, I've coached in I think six region championship games and we've lost a few close, but I had more confidence in this group than I've had in other groups going into a championship game, and credit to them, they went out and proved it."

The Thunderbirds didn't waver, and after taking the lead back, they relied on their defense and free-throw shooting (22-for-24) to close out the win.

 "We got a couple of bounces to go our way tonight, and that's kind of how it goes in the postseason," Conway said. "We got enough stops, came up with some big rebounds and forced them to foul late. We hit our free throws and got it done."

The Thunderbirds now turn their attention to the District tournament next Saturday, which they will be hosting at a time and against an opponent that are, as of yet, unknown.

But with the Region championship in their pocket, Conway feels confident about his team's ability to get the job done in getting them to the national stage.

"Every juco program is always trying to get to that national tournament, but it's been 22 years and that's too long," Conway said. "This group has come a long ways."