United Tribes Breaks National Tourney Drought
Thunderbirds win North District Title 83-80 over Region IX Champion Southeast Community College
JOSH DUNGAN, BISMARCK TRIBUNE
Breaking a national qualifying drought that stretched back to the start of the millennium, the Thunderbirds played their second straight close postseason game at home and came out ahead of Southeast Community College at James Henry Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon, 83-80.
"It feels great, the (win) last weekend felt good, but this one really caps it off with getting to the national tournament," United Tribes head coach Pete Conway said. "Getting there is where every juco starts the year wanting to get. We didn't make it easy tonight, the last eight seconds felt like they took about 20 minutes, but we made enough plays and now we're going to nationals."
Led as they so often have this season by Cayden Redfield, who had 24 points, three rebounds, one assist and one steal before fouling out, the Thunderbirds played hard-nosed basketball down the stretch to eke out their fifth win of the season in games decided by five points or less.
"It feels great, everybody worked hard to get to this moment," Redfield said. "At the end of the season, the team pulled through and we battled. What it came down was who wanted it more. They were right there, they could have stripped it from us, but at the end of the game, defense wins games, and we had to play our toughest defense and luck was on our side tonight."
"For a while there we were struggling to score and we went to him three possessions in a row and he got us some tough buckets when we needed it," Conway said. "He was able to free himself up in the second half and get some open threes. He's a competitor, I've known him a long time, he won a few state championships in high school and he loves these big games."
Houston Davis had 16 points, five rebounds and an assist. Trae Hugs had 13 points, two rebounds, one assist and three steals. Reserve Mark Fassett had 13 points, one rebound, two assists, and salted the game away by making a pair of free throws after Southeast Community College's Kenyon Williams was called for an intentional flagrant foul in the final three seconds.
"We got contributions from everybody, Cayden was in foul trouble for a lot of the game and he still had a great game," Conway said. "But other guys made plays when we needed to. We got a bigger contribution out of Houston this game, he's been consistent all year, it's been about who has been the third and fourth guy for us.
Also aiding United Tribes was their play in the Mon-Dak lengthening their bench, allowing them to comfortably play eight guys for more than 15 minutes. That was in stark contrast to Southeast, which got 10 or more minutes from just six players.
"We knew Southeast was a good team and it would be a battle, but we didn't think they were as deep as us and we could wear them down if we pressured a bit in the full court," Conway said. "The first half was a feel-them-out half, these games this time of year you don't know a ton about each other, so we talked about doing the simple stuff.
"Our conference prepares us well for the postseason because we play a lot of quality Division I and Division II teams, so our conference prepares us for everything."
Redfield got them the lead right back on a deep three with 8:41 left, which became the tipping point moment of the game; while Southeast would tie the game up shortly after, they would never regain the lead, with the closest they would get after the tie being a one-point deficit after a lay-in by their other co-lead scorer, Collin Tarver (20 points, six rebounds, one assist, one steal, one block) with nine seconds left.
"For the most part, we went through our motions, got the ball swung, and if we got some, we got some," Redfield said. "We played a lot of close games this season, and that's what helped us today, we've been in those tight spots before and we knew what it took to pull through."
The final nine seconds took a lengthy bit of time. After the lay-up, the Panthers called a timeout, allowing United Tribes to draw up an in-bounding play knowing the Panthers had several fouls to give before the Thunderbirds would get free throws.
It was unlikely Conway guessed exactly how many inbounding plays his team would end up needing, as the Thunderbirds attempted eight separate ball-entry plays in the final nine seconds, two of which were called off by United Tribes timeouts, and not until the seventh did Fassett draw the intentional foul that would give United Tribes the win.
"Today Houston was great, he called timeouts when things weren't there, we got guys open by using space in the half-court. That was a big call, I had a coach tell me in high school that in the postseason you need some breaks to go your way, and that was two big shots by a freshman. Mark hasn't been in that situation a lot this year, but we trusted him at the end of the game and he goes up there and nails two huge free throws to send us to nationals."
"We were just trying to get the ball in and box out," Redfield said. "We barely made it, but we made it. Regardless of the foul, we still had to make the free throws, and even then it could have the other way."
Southeast out-rebounded United Tribes 42-33, with Justin Bolis (15 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, one steal) leading the Bobcats. Hudda Curry led United Tribes' rebounding with six and Teal Soaring Eagle had five assists.
United Tribes will now prep to head to the national tournament for the first time since 2002 and their opponent will be known to them during the seeding announcement call on Tuesday.
"Our conference schedule prepared us, so I know this group, they aren't going into the national tournament caring where we're ranked," Conway said. "They're going in with the belief that we can win games and that our schedule has prepared us for it."