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Riverland roughs up Ironhawks
The Vermilion Ironhawks couldn’t have had a much more difficult season debut.
Not only did the community college men’s basketball team start the 2024-25 season on the road, it did so five hours south in the home gymnasium of last winter’s national runner-up - Riverland.
The host Blue Devils showed little mercy and picked up where they left off a year ago - forcing 28 turnovers in a 106-52 Nov. 1 rout at Austin.
Vermilion was much more competitive in Saturday’s finale at the Riverland Classic, but still fell short 83-71 to Rochester.
Under second-year head coach Dawson Dickson, the Ironhawks are hoping to be improved but field an almost entirely new lineup while facing the program’s most competitive non-conference slate in decades.
Riverland put Vermilion away early, outscoring the Ironhawks 54-27 in the opening half and never looking back.
The Blue Devils shot 52 percent from the floor, hit a dozen three-point baskets and had four players score in double figures with Damar Jenkins scoring 20 to lead the way.
No Vermilion starter reached double figures and the Ironhawks’ Jaylen Shelly came off the bench to score a team-high 13 points.
Tyson Rogers and Rashad Gatewood added six points each for Vermilion, which struggled mightily from outside. The Ironhawks went just one-for-18 from three-point distance.
Vermilion fell behind early against Rochester but came back to make a game of it against the Yellowjackets.
Freshmen Hamsa Alo and Tyson Rogers scored 13 points each to pace Vermilion, but again the Ironhawks couldn’t find their range - connecting only four times on 28 threepoint ateempts.
Shelly scored 12 points and had six rebounds and 6-5 freshman Jake Thome, who also is part of Vermilion’s baseball team, added nine points with four rebounds and a pair of blocked shots.
The Ironhawks have another long weekend in front of them with games this weekend at Devils Lake, N.D., and a tournament hosted by Lake Region.
Vermilion’s home debut is Nov. 15 against Leech Lake, with a 6 p.m. start time at the college gymnasium.
