In their final non-conference game of the season, the Dawson Community College Buccaneers won their 5th in a row and improved their record to 9-7 with a 105-74 victory over Stone Child College on Monday night. The Bucs opened the game on a 3-pointer from Cam’ron Dunfee and never relinquished the lead for the rest of the night. The visitors didn’t make it easy on them though. Stone Child used a balanced attack with strong inside play and timely shooting from the outside to hang around. Darnell Parisian’s three-pointer pulled Stone Child within three points at 10-7, but the Bucs responded with a long range shot from CJ Nelson, an inside bucket by Beau Santistevan and then a 3-pointer from Santistevan. Down 18-7, Stone Child scored the next two baskets by Jordan His Law and Kendall Windyboy. That was the closest they would get for the rest of the night. The home team gradually built their lead and Marcus Stephens closed the half with a drive and bank shot off the glass to give Dawson their largest lead of the first half 57-35. The Bucs dominated the boards 31-15 in the first half and forced 14 turnovers; scoring 20 points off of those turnovers. They scored 35 points off the bench and made 14-16 from the free throw line. Stephens scored 15 points and had 5 rebounds in only ten minutes of play in the opening half.
In the first five minutes of the second half, Dawson built on their lead with Stephens, Dunfee and Kolten Hitt hitting from long range. Santistevan’s bucket at the 15:33 mark gave Dawson a 29 point lead 70-41. The rest of the game stayed pretty close as DCC cruised to the 31 point victory. Their bench outscored the visitors 63-22 and they scored 23 second chance points and 38 points off of turnovers. Dawson finished the game with 20 assists and 23 steals.
In a balanced effort, twelve players scored for the Bucs and five were in double figures led by Marcus Stephens with 18 points and 6 rebounds. CJ Nelson had 14 points and 4 steals. Beau Santistevan had 13 points and 4 rebounds. Kolten Hitt had 12 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals. Cam'ron Dunfee also had 12 points. Stone Child College was led by Weston Wood and Jordan His Law with 16 points each.
Dawson coach Joe Peterson is ready to start conference play, “I thought we competed hard against a pretty talented team with good size. They came to play tonight and we didn’t shoot it particularly well, but I liked the way we rebounded, ran the floor and shared the basketball. It was a good tune-up to prepare us for conference. I think we are ready and I can’t wait to see how we will match-up in a very competitive Mon-Dak Conference.”
The Bucs open up conference with two road games at United Tribes Technical College on Thursday and Lake Region State College on Sunday. Their first home conference game will be January 17th against the 4-time reigning champions, North Dakota State College of Science.