Massive late charge falls short for DWU men in California, ending season in NAIA tourney – Mitchell Republic

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SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — Down 22 points with less than 10 minutes left, the Dakota Wesleyan University men’s basketball team was in the toughest hole of the season.

And the 14th-seeded Tigers almost dug themselves all the way out of it for an NAIA tournament first-round upset, but No. 3-seed The Master’s University hung on in the final seconds for a 69-65 win at the MacArthur Center in the northern hills of the Los Angeles metro.

DWU trailed 59-37 with 9:52 left when the Tigers put together a 15-4 run to get within 11 points. TMU then scored four points in a row and DWU answered with another 13-0 run inside the final 3 minutes, including 3-pointers from Randy Rosenquist Jr. and Tampa Scott IV, plus a three-point play from Desman Botts in that span.

But Kaleb Lowery, the Mustangs’ two-time NAIA All-American, closed out the game with a pair of free throws with 4 seconds left that made DWU a one-and-done squad in their first NAIA tournament in five years, capping the season at 20-10.

The Mustangs (26-5), ranked No. 8 in the final regular-season coaches’ top-25 poll, will face 11th-seeded Southern Oregon at 8 p.m. Central time on Saturday night to win the four-team opening-weekend bracket. SOU won the first game 84-81 over No. 6 Montana Tech to advance.

The Tigers didn’t have much going for them early in the game, struggling to muster much offense against a top-15 scoring offense in the country that allowed 66 points per game entering Friday. DWU was down 15-5 with 7 minutes elapsing and were shooting 2-for-11.

By halftime, DWU trailed 40-22 and was held to 33.3% shooting in the first 20 minutes. They were also decimated on the glass by a 30-11 margin, with TMU also grabbing 12 offensive rebounds to surpass DWU’s entire rebounding output.

In the second half, DWU was 16-for-27 from the field and hit 5-of-10 3-pointers. The charge was led in part by Botts, the 6-foot-4 freshman and native Californian who played only in nine games prior to…

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Publish date : 2025-03-15 14:37:00

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