CLARK -- The Aberdeen Roncalli boys' basketball team ran into a perfect storm Friday night.
The Clark-Willow Lake Cyclones capped off a perfect regular season with a 59-48 Northeast Conference win over the Cavaliers. The win pushed CWL's record to 19-0 and gave the top-rated Class A team the NEC title outright. Roncalli had entered the game hoping to claim a share of the league crown.
"I thought our kids played real, real hard tonight," said Roncalli coach Todd Neuendorf. "They left it all on the floor and it wasn't enough."
The contest was close throughout and the Cyclones were clinging to a 42-40 lead when the one and only surge of the night took place.
Tyson Jenkins scored inside and after a Roncalli miss, CWL standout Skyler Flatten buried a deep three-pointer to push the margin to 47-40 with 5:32 remaining.
"He hit that one from the volleyball line," Neuendorf said. "What do you do? You live with him hitting that shot."
The Cavaliers were unable to get the deficit under five points the rest of the way and CWL walked away with the conference title.
"There was one run in the game and that was the difference," Neuendorf explained.
Despite the loss, Neuendorf was pleased with his team's energy and effort.
"If we play as hard and as well as we played tonight, we will be fine from here on out," Neuendorf said. "Tonight we played a really good basketball game and played a really good basketball team."
Dominic King led the Roncalli attack with 18 points. The senior center scored at least four points in each quarter. His basket midway through the second period gave Roncalli it's biggest lead of the game at 22-17.
"I have to give a lot of credit to Dominic King," Neuendorf said. "Dom played huge tonight. He was a force in there."
As usual, Flatten was a force for the Cyclones as well. The South Dakota State recruit finished with 27 points, including a dozen in the fourth quarter.
Clark-Willow Lake ended up shooting 8 of 10 from the field during its 21-point fourth-quarter burst.
Roncalli, 13-4 on the season, still has two games left in the regular season, both make-up contests. The Cavaliers host Miller at 7 tonight at Roncalli Gym and then travel to Groton on Monday.
"The big thing we want to do is play with our same effort that we played with tonight," Neuendorf said. "I don't care about shots going in. I don't care about turnovers. I just want the same effort."
ABERDEEN RONCALLI: Kory Schwan 3 2-2 9, Zach Andera 2 0-0 4, Dominic King 8 2-4 18, Brayden McNeary 2 1-3 5, Kendal Deutsch 2 0-0 5, Zach Schaefbauer 2 0-0 5, Lucas Lorenz 1 0-0 2. Totals 20-56 5-9 48.
CLARK-WILLOW LAKE: Torrey Kolden 3 1-1 7, Lane Hovde 2 1-2 6, Tyson Jenkins 5 0-0 10, Skyler Flatten 8 9-11 27, Mitch Prouty 3 2-4 8, Rhett Florey 0 0-2 0, Braxton Hartley 0 1-2 1. Totals 21-45 14-22 59.
Aberdeen Roncalli (13-4)|13 27 36 48
Clark-Willow Lake (19-0)|12 27 38 59
3-point field goals -- Schwan, Deutsch, Schaefbauer, Hovde, Flatten 2. Fouled out -- Deutsch. Total fouls -- Aberdeen Roncalli 21; Clark-Willow Lake 11. Rebounds -- Aberdeen Roncalli 35 (Andera 11); Clark-Willow Lake 29 (Kolden 8). Turnovers -- Aberdeen Roncalli 11; Clark-Willow Lake 8. Assists -- Aberdeen Roncalli 13 (Schwan 5, Andera 5); Clark-Willow Lake 12 (Hovde 4, Kolden 4). Blocked Shots -- Aberdeen Roncalli 3 (King 2); Clark-Willow Lake 3 (Flatten 3). Steals -- Aberdeen Roncalli 5; Clark-Willow Lake 8. JV Game -- Aberdeen Roncalli 44-29.