With both teams playing their third game in three days in the Gillette Border Wars, the Casper College Thunderbirds caught fire from deep to put away the Dawson Buccaneers 102-77 on Saturday morning. They did it from inside the paint in the first half, shooting 17 of 28 from inside the arc. In the second half, they flipped the script and made a blistering 12 of 16 from 3-point range.
"They are a really good team," explained Dawson Coach Joe Peterson. "I honestly think our defense was pretty good, but they made some tough, tough shots. It seemed like every time we did something good, they would come down and make a tough, contested 3-pointer. I liked how well we rebounded the ball again tonight, but sometimes it just comes down to who makes more shots."
Dawson was the aggressor in the early stages of the game as they jumped out to a ten point lead in the first eight minutes. The Bucs held the Thunderbirds scoreless on nine of their first ten possessions. Seth Amunrud made three shots from long range and the Bucs were in control, but Casper started getting into the paint and finishing inside. Jimma James led the way with 14 points on 6-9 shooting in the opening twenty minutes. Casper eventually took the lead and closed out the half strong to go into the break with a 49-38 lead.
The Thunderbirds kept pouring it on in the opening stages of the second half to increase their advantage to twenty points. Abdul Bashiir led the way by scoring 25 points in the second half on 8-10 shooting from behind the arc. Darius Robinson also connected on 3-5 three point shots. Dawson made a few runs to cut the lead to 14 points, but couldn't ever get any closer than that.
Dawson only shot 37% from the field and 33% from the 3-point line, while Casper shot a blistering 54% from the field, 60% from the 3-point line and 80% from the free throw line.
Bashir finished with 32 points for Casper. James had 18 points and Robinson scored 16.
Demetric Kindle came off the bench to lead Dawson with 15 points to go along with 6 rebounds. Ty Buckmon, Seth Amunrud and Roniel Oguekwe all finished with 12 points each.
"Overall, it was a really good weekend for us," shared Peterson. "Playing good competition is only going to make us better. It exposed some things that we can now go back and work on. We've had a great start to the season, but there is still a lot of room for growth. We've only scratched the surface of what we are capable of doing. We have a great group of guys that are really hungry and going to keep working and getting better."
Dawson is now 11-2 on the season. The two opponents who have beaten them will be coming to Glendive on January 5-6 to face the Bucs again. Dawson's last game before the break will be on the road at Northwest College next Friday.