Austin grads Tate Hebrink and Nyagoa Obany are re-united on the basketball court, and they’re hoping to get back to their winning ways.

The duo, who helped lead the Packers to a fourth place finish in the Minnesota Class AAA State Tournament in 2018, are both playing with Riverland Community College and the Blue Devils opened their season with a 93-59 Dakota State in Riverland Gym Tuesday night.

Hebrink, who transferred to RCC after a year at UW-River Falls, is hoping to have a big season with the Blue Devils and Obany is looking to anchor the paint in his second year with RCC. Obany had a big dunk on an alley-oop early in the win over Dakota and he finished with six points, six rebounds and three assists.

“Tate always sees me and it’s pretty fun to be playing with him again,” Obany said. “The goal is for us to go to the National Tournament.”

Hebrink added two points, six assists and two steals in his first game for the Blue Devils (1-0 overall). Hebrink is excited to play at the school, where his mother Susan was a long-time head women’s basketball coach.

“It’s been going pretty good. It’s been a lot of fun and it’s always fun to play with Nyagoa,” Tate said. “His confidence has gone up a little bit.”

Last season, the Blue Devils went 24-6 overall as they won their first conference title since 1972 and the team has six players back from that squad. RCC has also added two sophomore transfers in Tate and Mankato native and former RCTC player Eddie Oyet, who tallied 21 points, five rebounds and four steals off the bench on Tuesday.

“We’ve got a lot of experience and that’s going to go along ways for us,” RCC head coach Derek Hahn said. “The one thing this group has that we’ve never had is depth. It’s a nice thing, but sometimes it can be tough for chemistry. I’m hoping we can improve and we’ll still have high expectations. We expect to win at this point.”

RCC jumped out to a double-digit lead early on against Dakota and the Blue Devils never had any trouble the rest of the way. Montrell Jacobs, who had eight points, four rebounds, and four assists, got the crowd going with an explosive jam on an alley-oop in the second half, but RCC got a little wild down the stretch.

“There was glimpses of what we could be, but we got a little sloppy with the lobs because we had a couple of nice dunks. We threw the ball away a little and that’s something we don’t like to see,” Hahn said. “I understand it a little bit too as a player where you want to make the hi-light reel. The discipline needs to improve a little bit, but when we get there, the horizon is bright. I think we can be a phenomenal defensive team.”

RCC had 15 players score in the win.

Dakota 22  37  —  59

RCC 44  49  —  93

RCC scoring: Eddie Oyet, 21; Terrell Smith, 17; Montrell Jacobs, 8; Donn Joshua Ward, 8; Quincy Snoody, Jr., 7; Nyagoa Obany, 6; Keanan Butler, 5; Rashaud Collins, 5; Ibrahim Mohammad, 4; Tate Hebrink, 2; Keisan Crosby, 2; Devonne Brown, 2; Josh Hodges, 2; Jhett Wade, 2; Marquis Dotson, 2; free throws: 71 percent (5-for-7); rebounds: 39; turnovers: 14