Pequot Lakes Boys’ Basketball Heading Back to State for 3rd Straight Year

The Pequot Lakes boys’ basketball team is going to the Class AA state tournament for the third consecutive year and sixth time in school history.

The Patriots currently sit at 26-4, riding an 11-game win streak dating all the way back to February 9 while allowing only 45 points a game during that span.

For this year’s team, it’ll been all about dispelling the doubt.

“A lot of people did not expect for us to be where we are currently, and our first game against [Detroit Lakes], we played solid, just came up a little short and we knew that if that’s what we’re going to build off of, we’re going to have a successful year,” said guard Blake Spiczka. “And [it] came true, we turned out to have a successful year and we’re still going.”

Three key offensive contributors from last year’s state roster have graduated. But what Pequot Lakes lost in scoring, they gained in defense, holding opponents to 46 points per game this season.

“All these guys love playing defense. Making people mad is just like really fun for us,” admitted guard Ethan Quale.” And the 40 points is just, we try to keep it as low as possible so we don’t have to score as much because we lost all the scoring. But it just translates from defense to offense and we always start with defense on this team.”

And the Patriots needed every bit of that defensive prowess in the Section 7AA championship, as they faced rival Esko there for the second straight year, who also handed the boys one of their four losses this season.

“We’re really just trying to kind of limit how many touches they got in the post because they killed us, and especially on offensive, rebounds the first time we played them, they absolutely killed us on that,” said forward Clay Erickson. “We only lost by 10 points. I think we also shot like around 20%. So, we knew that they were beatable and we knew that we just had to come out hot and just keep playing good throughout the whole game to beat them.”

Even at the University of Minnesota Duluth, the Pequot Lakes faithful showed out as they’ve done for the team all season long.

“We have an amazing community, a lot of support coming from our whole town and just everybody really supporting who we are and what as a team,” explained Blake Spiczka. “And obviously that rival of Esko really brings a lot of people in ’cause it’s been going on for years to come and that was probably the best student section we’ve had a lot of years, that was a lot of fun.”

The boys rewarded the community support with a 55-42 victory over Esko, clinching a Class AA state tournament appearance for an unprecedented third year in a row.

“It’s special. I mean, this program’s only went six times, and I’ve got to be a part of three of them, just as all the other seniors have,” said guard Brayden Spiczka. They’ve had a jersey for the past three. I mean, all years of my career, I’ll be going to the state tournament, which is something that a lot of people can’t say. So it’s pretty special for us and the guys.”

And while the boys aren’t taking their latest trip to the Twin Cities for granted, they’re hopeful this year’s will net the best results.

“I’m looking forward to winning the first game,” said Quale. “Both years we’ve lost in the state championship, it’s not going to happen this year. We’re at least going to win the first game. We’ve got to raise the bar for the next year. We’re not getting fifth this year, we’re at least getting fourth.”

Pequot Lakes enters the Class AA tournament as the 4-seed. The Patriots will try to extend their win streak to 12 against last year’s runner-up, 5-seed Minnehaha Academy. That game is at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 20 at Williams Arena.