‘DO OR DIE GAME’
Dakota hands Chippewa Valley first MAC Red loss
There were no ifs, ands or buts about it.
Friday’s basketball game with Chippewa Valley was one Dakota had to win if it had any hopes of winning a third straight Macomb Area Conference Red Division championship.
“The coaches have told us we have our backs to the wall every game and this was a do or die game,” said senior forward Gabe Sterkaj, who played a strong allaround game to help the Cougars hand the Big Reds their first division loss, 59-50.
“We treated it like a playoff game. We tried to come out and establish ourselves and give them their first MAC loss.”
Dakota served notice early that it wasn’t going to be easy to score on the Cougars. Sterkaj and Tymias Williams did a good job of shutting down the area inside the paint. Chippewa Valley didn’t score its first point until Kody Clinton made a free throw with two minutes left in the first quarter. By that time, Dakota had a 7-1 lead.
“We’ve been working on our defense for a couple weeks,” said Cougars coach Paul Tocco. “I looked at the last game at Chip and we did not play very good defense and we lost by one point. We figured if we came out here playing a suffocating team defense, did a good job on (Devin) Lilly and limit their good looks we’d have a chance.
“That’s exactly what happened — but we couldn’t score, either. Coming into this game, defense was a big focus for us.”
Chippewa Valley coach Corey Smith warned his team that Dakota would come out like a team on a mission.
“I told our guys at the beginning that the first quarter was important,” Smith said. “We really had to withstand their run, but we just did not have it. We battled, but we couldn’t get it in the first quarter. To me, that was the difference in the game. Our guys showed a lot of guts coming from 16 (down) in the second half and getting it down to two,
but you can’t dig yourselves those kind of holes against a team like that.”
Smith expected Dakota to make some changes in its game plan from the first time the teams met.
“They did a few things different than they did in the first game against us,” he said. “We had to kind of evolve and adjust. When Ricky (Mosley) went down with his ankle injury that took some wind out of us. That’s when they went on a run in the second quarter. We had to adjust to playing without one of our main cogs, but give (Dakota) all the credit. They made the plays.”
Williams scored seven points and Sterkaj had four in the second quarter when Dakota extended its lead to 28-17 at halftime. A putback by Williams to cap a 6-0 run put the Cougars ahead 37-21 with 5 ½ minutes left in the third quarter.
Williams and Sterkaj each scored 15 points to lead Dakota’s offense.
“Gabe had a great game,” Tocco said. “He had 15 points, five rebounds, a couple assists, a block and he took a couple charges. When we couldn’t get it going offensively, we could throw it into Gabe and he did a nice job. Tymias is always a 15 (point) and 10
(rebound) guy. Those two guys made a difference in the game.”
Sterkaj’s energy can be contagious.
“I always try to come out and provide a spark any way I can,” he said. “Even if I don’t score a lot, I come out on defense, try to take charges and put my body on the line. It’s all for my teammates. They give me my motivation.”
Sterkaj wasn’t concerned when the shots weren’t falling for Dakota early in the game.
“Our coaches keep telling us defense wins games,” he said. “If we hold them down at the other end our shots will eventually fall in our home gym. We practice here every day.”
Chippewa Valley started its comeback with a layup off a steal by DayShawn Goodwyn midway through the third quarter. That triggered a 19-7 run by the Big Reds that cut the Dakota lead to 46-44 with 4:21 remaining in the game. Sophomore Jordan Wright had eight of his 14 points in that run.
“He’s made a big difference since we brought him up from the JVs,” Smith said. “He has a great feel around the rim. He can make the short roll, the hard roll and when he catches it around the rim, he can finish on both sides.”
Chippewa Valley never got closer than two points and Dakota secured the
victory with some excellent free-throw shooting. The Cougars went 11-for-12 from the line in the final 3 ½ minutes. Levert Lyons had four of the free throws and freshman Isiah Hines connected on five.
“It was just a matter of focusing on our defensive game plan and playing it throughout,” Tocco said. “The kids did a nice job. When you only give up 50 points its a good game for us — and against a very good team. We knew that if we were going to win the MAC Red, this was a must and we came out ready to play some good basketball.
“It was a good environment. We haven’t had that kind of environment for a long time with COVID going on.”
Chippewa Valley still has a one-game lead over Dakota in the MAC Red so the Big Reds control their destiny.
“We knew this would be a hard one. They had to win this game,” Smith said. “Our message to the team will be that we didn’t get here by accident, so we have to go back to what we did in getting here.”
Hines finished with nine points and D’Andre Scott and Lyons each added seven points for Dakota.
Clinton scored 13 points for Chippewa Valley and Lilly scored 10, including a buzzer beater from beyond mid-court at the end of the third quarter.