Dawson Wins 20th Game of the Season
The Dawson Buccaneers put a bow on a festive Hall of Fame weekend by beating the Dakota College Bottineau Lumberjacks 96-69. It was their 7th straight win and boosts their overall record to 20-2 and conference record to 6-0 with a big matchup looming on Monday night in Glendive vs. Williston State College. On the court Williston has won 9 games in a row. Their last loss was in the DCC Tournament in Glendive vs. Gillette College back on December 14th.
On Sunday, in front of a big crowd, Dawson took it to their visitors early on by scoring 31 points in the first ten minutes of the game. Justin Asi got the home team rolling with two long range bombs to open the game. Seth Amunrud followed up with a couple of lay-ups. The Bucs went up by 11 points on another layup by Amunrud to make it 31-20. Dawson only turned it over twice in the first half and shot 60% from the field to build a 24 point lead at one point and eventually head to the break with a 51-32 advantage. Thirty-six of their fifty-one points came from inside the paint. Asi netted 13 points while Jalen Blanchard led the Jacks with 15 points.
Dawson scored on four of their first six possessions of the second half and held their visitors to only six points in the first six minutes of the half. The lead quickly grew to thirty points and the Bucs never looked back. The closest Dakota College got after that was 17 points. Dawson continued to take good care of the ball and shoot a good percentage from the field.
"I think our intensity was up and down at different times and we settled for some average shots, but we executed our game plan pretty well," said Dawson Coach Joe Peterson. "Sam Massaquoi and Ade Onaleye really gave us a lift off the bench and our starters moved the ball well which led to a lot of great shots."
Dawson shot 58% from the field for the game while holding DCB to 47% from the field and 17% from 3-point range. They also outrebounded the visitors 34-27.
Justin Asi finished with a game high 22 points on 9-14 shooting from the field. He also grabbed 7 rebounds. Six other Bucs scored at least 9 points including Seth Amunrud with 14 points, Sam Massaquoi and Ade Onaleye each had 13 points. Tytan Hanson had 10 points while Brandon Hymes and Aries Lewis contributed 9 points each.
Dawson and Williston face off on Monday night in Glendive at 7:30 pm with first place in the Mon-Dak Conference on the line. The game will be sponsored by Mid Rivers Communications