Jimmy Lafakis/MDN Minot senior guard Tucker Olson (bottom) and Dickinson junior guard Kobe Krenz (top) dive for a loose ball during Friday night's game in Minot. The Midgets took a 79-72 victory in the contest.

The Dickinson Midgets would not quit.

The Midgets (1-1, 1-1 WDA) earned a 79-72 win over Minot (2-1, 2-1 WDA) in a tightly contested WDA matchup on Friday night.

The Magicians never led in the contest. After Dickinson’s first 3-pointer, the Midgets dictated the pace and forced the Magi to catch up.

“I hope we learned that we’ve got to start listening to scouting reports,” MHS head coach Dean Winczewski said. “We have to start playing harder. We have to be more physical. We actually have to worry about guarding people. All the things that we’ve preached the entire start of the year, we didn’t do. Dickinson took advantage of it.”

Whenever the Magi crept back into the action, the Midgets peppered in counterpunches. A barrage of Dickinson threes helped widen the gap, but Minot cut the lead to 38-34 at halftime.

The Magi forced a few ties in the second half, but the Midgets held firm. With 10:37 remaining in the second half, Minot senior guard Jaxon Gunville tied the game at 47-47 with a free throw.

Although the shot marked the game’s first tie, Dickinson held firm.

“We’ve got to get better,” Winczewski said. “We’ve got to be willing to guard. We’ve got to be willing to box out. Until that happens, when we run into good teams, we’re going to get beat. It’s an attitude about wanting to do those things well.”

After some more nip and tuck play, a deep Gunville 3-pointer knotted the score at 58-58. Over the next five and a half minutes, the scrappy Midgets found a winning formula.

The Midgets scored both inside and outside, penetrating the paint and finding open shooters. Dickinson also controlled the glass all night long.

In turn, the Midgets controlled the game.

“They played way better than we did,” Winczewski said of the Midgets. “They deserved to win. We deserved to lose.”

A late Minot rally came up short. After the final buzzer sounded, the Midgets raced to celebrate on the court.

“We’ve got to work harder as a team,” Minot senior center Easton Larson said. “We’ve got to box out. We’ve got to play more as a team. We’ve got to really rotate the ball a lot more and stay together more as a team. They were doing a good job setting screens, and we didn’t hedge the best. They did a good job crashing the boards, and we didn’t box out well enough. That’s what we’ve got to work on.”

Dickinson will make the trek to Turtle Mountain Community for a 3:30 p.m. matinee today. Minot will travel to Bismarck St. Mary’s for a 7:45 p.m. contest on Dec. 17.

“When it’s easy, then it’s easy,” Winczewski said. “The reality is that we’re not doing the things we need to.”

Jimmy Lafakis covers Minot High School sports and Class B high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @JJLII30.