Dawson Blows Out North Dakota Science
After an exciting overtime win on Sunday, the Dawson Buccaneers didn't leave Monday's outcome in question. They raced out to a 50-15 lead in the first fifteen minutes and never looked back against the visiting North Dakota State College of Science Wildcats. The win bumps Dawson's record to 16-2 on the season and 2-0 in conference.
The Bucs came out on fire with a 3-point shot from Justin Asi, a steal and lay-up by Delray Lilley, and a 3-point shot from Jordan Jasper to take a quick 8-0 lead in the first minute of the game. Dawson's defense made it incredibly difficult for the Wildcats to score on, holding their guests to 25% shooting from the field and 7% from the 3-point line in the first half. Aries Lewis capped off the barrage with a dunk to give the Bucs a 56-23 lead at the break.
The second half was much more even, but Dawson kept their lead between 30-40 points for the rest of the night. NDSCS never made a serious threat to get back into the game. It was a dominating performance all the way around with the Bucs outshooting the Wildcats 54% to 35% from the field and 42% to 19% from the 3-point line. Dawson outscored NDSCS in the paint 54-36 and their bench outscored them 52-21. The rebounding battle also ended in favor of Dawson, 48-30 overall and 14-7 on the offensive glass.
"I was impressed with how our guys responded to our coaching this weekend," explained Dawson Coach Joe Peterson. "We made a big deal about rebounding before Sunday's game and they had one of the best rebounding games I've ever witnessed. Before tonight's game we talked about not giving up anything easy on the defensive end and playing better together with more flow on the offensive end. Looking at the stats, it's easy to see we played great defensively and we shared the ball well on offense with 23 assists. Matt had a big game for us on the offensive end and Brandon did a little bit of everything. We are hard to beat when he plays like that."
Seven Buccaneers finished in double figures, led by Matt Kinzeler's 19 points on 4-5 shooting from beyond the arc. Justin Asi finished with 16 points, Ade Onaleye had 15 points (6-7 FG) and 6 rebounds, Kur Maler had 14 points, Aries Lewis added 13 points and 9 rebounds, and Jordan Jasper contributed 10 points. Brandon Hymes filled up the box score with 12 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds, 6 steals and 0 turnovers.
Mikkel Cintron and Jikany Deang were the only double figure scorers for NDSCS. They both had 15 points.
Dawson gets a few days off before returning to action on Sunday for a road game at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, ND.
