Pequot Lakes Boys Basketball Returns to State Tournament for 2nd Straight Year

For the second straight year, the Pequot Lakes boys basketball team is back in the Class AA state tournament. The Patriots are on a 19-game win streak, capped off by their Section 7AA final win over Esko last Friday.

But things weren’t exactly great earlier this year. After a 5-0 start, the Pats lost five of their next six games and sat just one game over .500. Something needed to change.

“I think we played Detroit Lakes on January 17th and we had a team meeting afterwards,” said head coach Rich Spiczka. “We kind of had to look within ourselves and understand that maybe we have to do some things differently.”

The boys found their groove, beating 18 of their next 19 opponents by 10 points or more. The only close game during that stretch was a regular season matchup against Esko, where the Patriots won on a half-court buzzer-beater by senior guard Eli Laposky.

The return trip to Minneapolis satisfies one of the team’s goals for the season. The next is to get that game-one win.

Pequot Lakes goes into the tournament unseeded, and will square off with number 2 seeded Albany, a team they lost to earlier in the year by 22 points.

“We’ve just got to match their physicality and intensity,” said senior forward Gavin Kennen. “They’re a great team, so if we just match them in those two areas, I think we can compete.”

The Patriots play their Class AA quarterfinal matchup versus Albany on Tuesday, March 21st at 6 p.m. in the University of Minnesota’s William’s Arena.