Warriors stuff da Bears

No. 1 in Class A, Red Lake finishes homestand with convincing 123-50 win

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Feb. 20, 1999

RED LAKE -- Call it a legendary end to a storied era.

Behind the senior leadership of Gerald Kingbird and Delwyn Holthusen, the Red Lake Warriors devastated the Lake of the Woods Bears 123-50 here Friday night.

In the process, the Red Lake Reservation bid farewell to, arguably, its two greatest high school basketball players ever in Holthusen and Kingbird -- the dynamic duo who first became local celebrities in a state semifinal overtime loss versus Wabasso in 1997.

Although the state's No. 1-ranked Class A Warriors will play their final regular season game Tuesday at Kelliher-Northome, neither of the dynamic duo will ever play organized ball on the hardwood floor that made them who they are today.

"We definitely wanted to play all the seniors and try to get everybody into the ball game," Red Lake assistant coach Bill Rutledge said. "But we didn't focus on it being Delwyn and Gerald's last game. We wanted to look at it as just another game, but they both played super games."

Playing the quintessential inside game of his career, Holthusen scored 29 points on six slam dunks, eight layups and one bonus shot to lead the Warriors in scoring.

"My goal was to give the crowd what they wanted to see," a shoeless, sweaty Holthusen said after the game. "Everybody tries to push the big man around. So I told the players I wanted to get five dunks for everybody. I think I had six."

While Kingbird in his own quiet and unassuming manner netted 19 points, nine of which cam from beyond the three-point line, just a couple feet toward the corner and a step behind the line -- his sweet spot.

"Knowing it was going to be my last one playing here made me pretty sad thinking about it," the much more sedated Kingbird said. "I wanted to come out and have fun ... please the crowd."

And please the crowd, they did.

Yes ... the hundreds of Red Lake faithful got what they paid for Friday as the Warriors wanted to end this unimaginable three-year journey in style.

As a tribute, the Warriors started not only Holthusen and Kingbird, but seniors David Rosebear, Gary Strong and Jon Mountain.

But those attending might not have noticed the unusual starting cast as the Warriors jumped out to quick 8-0, 14-3 and 18-7 leads. Red Lake led 23-13 at the end of the first, and it would be the closest the Bears would ever come again.

The usual starting five Warriors took the court in the second and rocked the Bears with a 15-2 run before Lake of the Woods untracked itself a bit.

Led by Holthusen's 19 points in the first half, Red Lake took a 55-30 lead into the locker room.

In the second half, whether it was the shear athleticism of Red Lake, the intimidation of the Warriors' hundreds of fans or the pressure of playing the No. 1 team in the state, the Bears fell apart.

They could only muster 11 points in the third period and a meager nine in the fourth, while Red Lake ran wild with 38 and 30 respectively.

When Holthusen was pulled from the game with 42 seconds remaining in the third, he received a thundering, minute-long standing ovation, as did Kingbird when he sat down three seconds later.

The Warriors' other seniors including the non-starters of Harvey Roy and Chris Branchaud played as much of the second half, with every player on the Red Lake roster scoring except Branchaud.

The Warriors shot 50-of-88 (57 percent) from the field and 17-of-26 (65 percent) from the free throw line in the contest -- a factor that didn't help the Bears much.

Scoring 123 in a game was considered to be the record for the Warriors, according to Red Lake officials, but they did score 101 against Cass Lake-Bena earlier this year and 113 in that fateful playoff loss to Wabasso two years ago.

"It's been a great year, and it's been hard not to focus on the playoffs," Holthusen said, pondering his team's season to date, "but we want to play about nine more games. We want to get that state championship. So we'll play even harder."

Lake of the Woods 13 17 11 9 -- 50

Red Lake 23 32 38 30 -- 123

LAKE OF THE WOODS (?-?) 50

Darin Novak 1-7 2-3 4, Marty Humeniuk 3-8 2-3 9, Tony Caldwell 0-3 0-0 0, Justin VanDeHey 1-2 0-0 2, Cornell Carryl 8-16 1-3 18, Andy Hart 4-8 0-2 8, Joe Gubbeis 3-8 0-0 6, Leonard Matthias 0-2 0-0 0, Jared Berg 1-1 0-1 2, Kyle Nylander 0-0 1-2 1. Team Totals -- 21-53 6-14 50.

RED LAKE (20-1) 123

Gerald Kingbird 8-15 3-4 19, David Rosebear 3-4 0-0 6, Gary Strong 1-5 0-0 2, Jon Mountain 2-3 0-0 4, Delwyn Holthusen 14-16 1-1 29, Harvey Roy 2-3 2-5 6, Joe Nayquanabe 4-9 1-1 10, Harold Graves 1-2 1-2 3, Byron Graves 6-9 2-3 16, Clyde Perkins 1-8 2-2 5, Dustin Thunder 2-4 2-2 6, Scott Pemberton 2-3 3-4 7, Dustin Brown 1-3 0-0 3, Dalton Walker 3-3 1-2 7, Chris Branchaud 0-1 0-0 0. Team Totals -- 50-88 17-26 123.

3-pointers -- LOW 2-10 (Novak 0-1, Humeniuk 1-2, Carryl 1-3, Gubbeis 0-2, Matthias 0-2). RL 8-24 (Kingbird 3-7, Strong 0-3, Nayquanabe 1-2, B. Graves 2-2, Perkins 1-5, Thunder 0-1, Pemberton 0-1, Brown 1-2, Branchaud 0-1).