Strong Defense Leads Men's Basketball Past Dakota Wesleyan
Hastings, NE – The Hastings College men’s basketball team got back in the win column by defeating Dakota Wesleyan 70-59 on Friday night inside Lynn Farrell Arena.
| Final | 1 | 2 | T |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
36 | 23 | 59 |
|
|
32 | 38 | 70 |
Team Stats
Dakota Wesleyan (SD)
| Game Statistics | Dakota Wesleyan (SD) | Hastings |
|---|---|---|
| Field Goals | (22-67) | (24-56) |
| Field Goal % | 32.8% | 42.9% |
| Rebounds | 36 | 44 |
| Assists | 8 | 9 |
| Turnovers | 4 | 8 |
| Pts off Turnovers | 6 | 4 |
| 2nd Chance Pts | 18 | 10 |
| Pts in the Paint | 18 | 30 |
| Fastbreak Pts | 0 | 0 |
| Bench Pts | 6 | 10 |
Hastings, NE – The Hastings College men's basketball team got back in the win column by defeating Dakota Wesleyan 70-59 on Friday night inside Lynn Farrell Arena.
After a solid showing in the first half, the Broncos trailed by just four points at 36-32 as Hastings relied heavily on Grady Corrigan, Tyrique McMurrin, Evan Kingston and Danilo Matovic to keep them in the ball game as DWU focused on slowing Reggie Thomas as he had just two points at the break.
Not only did Thomas begin to make noise in the second half, it was also the Bronco defense that stepped up and slowed down the DWU offense. With the HC defense getting the job done, the offense began to heat up.
It didn't take long for Hastings to close the gap in the second half eventually taking the lead on a Phil Cisrow layup with 10:33 to go as Dakota Wesleyan called a timeout. After another defensive stop, Anthony Thompson went to the rack aggressively getting the layup to go to put HC up 48-45.
Following a Tiger free throw, Hastings began to get separation when Kingston drained a three from the corner to make it 51-46. Then the crowd really got into the game when Cisrow found a wide open Zach Rust and he got the layup to go plus the harm as the Bronco lead grew to nine after the successful free throw by Rust.
As the clock began to bleed out on the Tigers, Hastings went to its five out and this is when Thomas was at his best as he beat his defender to the layup to make it 61-50 with 5:14 to go. After DWU got a three from Koln Oppold, Thomas went right back to work getting to the hoop for the layup to make it 63-53 with 3:07 left to play. Dakota Wesleyan attempted a few more threes but couldn't get any to fall down the stretch. The Broncos eventually got the lead to 13 at 70-57 when both teams cleared the bench with under a minute to play.
It was a tale of two halves as Hastings shot just 36.4 percent (12-for-33) in the first half but came back to shoot 52.2 percent (12-for-23) in the second half including going 13-for-16 from the line. The Tigers shot just 25.8 percent (8-for-31) in the second half and just 9.5 percent (2-for-21) from downtown.
Hastings finished with four players in double figures led by Kingston's 14 on 4-of-7 shooting including 3-for-5 from behind the arc. Thomas scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half while just missing out on a double-double with nine boards. McMurrin added 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting while Matovic also had 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Corrigan added nine points while Rust finished with six.
For the game Hastings shot 42.9 percent (24-for-56) while DWU shot just 32.8 percent (22-for-67). Hastings shot 33.3 percent (5-for-15) from behind the arc while the Tigers shot just 19 percent (8-for-42).
Rebounds went in the favor of the Broncos 44-to-36 and HC dominated around the rim out scoring DWU 30-to-18. Both teams took really good care of the ball as there was only a total of 12 turnovers.
Hastings ends its three game skid to improve to 13-6 (6-5) on the year and will be back in action Saturday Jan. 21 as Jamestown comes to town with tipoff set for 2:45 pm inside Lynn Farrell Arena.
