Dakota Wesleyan men hang on late for home win over Doane

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Jan. 26—MITCHELL — The scoring dried up in the second half on Sunday afternoon for the Dakota Wesleyan University men’s basketball team.

But with a lot of luck, as their coach put it, the Tigers managed to pull out a victory in the final minutes of its 58-54 win over Doane in a Great Plains Athletic Conference matchup at the Corn Palace.

After leading by 13 points with 16:02 remaining, the Tigers scored only 10 more points for the remainder of the game and shot 28% in the second half. Mitchell product Steele Morgan had two big field goals in the final six minutes of the game — DWU’s only points in that span — and Sam Aslesen converted a pair of free throws with 2 seconds remaining to seal the victory, the Tigers’ 15th of the season.

It was a season-low for points for DWU, which improved to 7-3 in home games.

“There was a lot of luck involved,” DWU coach Kevin Williamson said. “I’d rather be lucky than good. We just were not finishing shots and we became a little passive with the shots in the elbow area. We executed some of the gameplan stuff pretty well but as the game went on, we could not make shots when we could get them.”

The defining moment came when DWU had the ball under the basket with 13 seconds left with a three point lead. Tampa Scott IV was the inbound passer and DWU was able to free up Morgan on the opposite block under the basket and he was able to lay the ball in and draw the foul to put the blue Tigers up by five points. Morgan missed the ensuing free throw but it ended up being a decisive shot.

“He really executed it well and timed it and then slipped at the last second and got to the block and was wide open,” Williamson said. “I didn’t know it was going to work, but he executed it really well and he became wide open for doing it.”

DWU took early control of the game in the first half, using a 15-0 run over a span of 4 minutes and 46 seconds to build a 24-13 lead and eventually build a 14-point edge late in the first period at 36-22. But Doane closed the…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/dakota-wesleyan-men-hang-home-004700379.html

Author : The Daily Republic, Mitchell, S.D.

Publish date : 2025-01-27 00:47:00

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