By Rich Winter

605 Sports

With four minutes remaining in his high school career, Malik Longie’s coach Jesse Bien looked down the bench to assistant coach James Ferrell and asked ‘How many does he need?’ ”

Longie was sitting on 996 career points during Flandreau Indian’s quarterfinal game against Castlewood in the Region 2B playoffs. Two baskets later Longie gave a ‘little’ fist-pump for a kid that didn’t get to play most of his high school career. 

“It was really great to see for a kid who didn’t have one full year of basketball and a shortened junior season,” said Bien, who is the Flandreau Indian boys basketball coach.

Longie, who hails from Spirit Lake, North Dakota, showed up on the campus of Flandreau Indian school in the fall 2019. 

“He started junior varsity for me,” Bien said. “He was one of those kids I knew could play right away.” 

Longie was No. 8 on the depth chart to start his freshman season but played well enough to start a few games that year. 

“He knew his role, shoot when you are open and play the best defense you can,” Bien said. “He took that varsity pressure in stride and we were super happy with how his freshman season went.” 

In early March with the COVID-19 pandemic taking hold the athletic programs at Flandreau Indian stopped on a dime. 

“We sent a letter home and an email saying we want your kids to remain at home for health and safety,” Bien said. 

Little did anyone know it would be 18 months before things began resembling any kind of normalcy for Flandreau Indian students and athletes. 

Originally Flandreau Indian was supposed to go back to school in August 2021. 

“The day before school was supposed to start we found out we would have to stay online and do virtual school,” Bien said. “We had to call the All-Nations Football Conference and tell them we couldn’t play and that was the second year in a row we didn’t have a volleyball season.” 

The first time students stepped foot back on campus was Oct. 24, 2021. Despite the unusual circumstances Longie’s commitment to Flandreau Indian basketball never wavered. 

“I liked being at this school and I knew I wanted to finish high school with a coach like coach Bien helping me grow as a player,” Longie said. 

Longie and his teammates hit the hardwood for practice in the fall 2021 and played one game before COVID-19 reared its ugly head once again.

“We played one game of basketball before winter break and when we came back from winter break we went into isolation for three and a half weeks,” Bien said. 

When practice was finally able to resume the Indians could only practice in pods of six to seven players and they had to practice social distancing while in practice sessions. 

“We went into the Dakota Oyate Challenge that year with just a few days of practice,” Bien said. 

All told Longie and his team played only 15 games in the 2021-22 season finishing 2-13. 

Entering this season Longie wasn’t thinking about any milestones he just wanted to play.

“I didn’t even think I was close to 1,000 points,” he said. 

Flandreau Indian's Malik Longie attempts to block the shot of an Omaha Nation during the 2023 Dakota Oyate Challenge - Rodney Haas - 605 Sports

In all actuality, Longie wasn’t super close to the milestone. In a reserve role as a freshman and playing only 15 games his junior year Longie entered the 2022-23 season having scored 438 career points. 

Midway through the season Bien went back to tally up career points and he and coach Farrell thought that 1,000 points wasn’t out of the question. 

“He had six or seven games there where he went on a tear and averaged 37.5 ppg,” Bien said. 

In late January, Longie set the school scoring record with a 53 points game in the Dakota Oyate Challenge. On Feb. 16 he poured in 56 points against Oldham/Ramona-Rutland. 

With one game remaining in the regular season Longie needed 66 points to top the 1,000-point barrier. He dropped 40 on Estelline/Hendricks as the Indians earned a 79-75 win. 

Longie scored 28 in the playoff game against Castlewood and finished his high school career with 1,002 points. He holds the school’s single game scoring record (56) and also holds the single-season scoring record (564). 

The son of Fred Longie Jr. and Geraldine Dumarce wrapped up his high school career in style. 

“It was an amazing feeling to get that in the last game of my high school career,” he said.