DWU men fall to No. 10 Midland

MITCHELL, S.D. – The Dakota Wesleyan University men's basketball team was looking for a second straight upset Sunday afternoon, and led No. 10 Midland University by two midway through the second half, but the Warriors held on for an 82-71 win at the Corn Palace.

The loss is just the second in the past 10 games for Dakota Wesleyan, which is 13-9 overall and 6-6 and in sixth place in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. Midland improved to 19-3 overall and 10-3 in the GPAC.

The Warriors led by as many as nine, 48-39, early in the second half, but DWU went on an 11-2 run that included a three from Kris Menning to tie the game at 50 with 15:28 left to play. Midland pushed its lead back to three, but Stephen Lee scored and Jade Miller hit a three to put the Tigers up 57-55 with 11:20 to play.

From there, however, Midland went on a 13-2 run to grab a 68-57 lead with six minutes remaining, and the Tigers never got closer than eight points from there on out.

Dakota Wesleyan started the game with a three by Menning, and Jalen Voss hit a three a short time later to put DWU up 8-2 early. Menning hit another three to keep the Tigers up six, 15-9, with 14:22 left in the first half, but Midland took its first lead of the game on a three by Avery Langford with 10:53 left in the half. Voss converted a three-point play to allow DWU to regain the lead, but the Warriors went on a 15-3 run to go up 11, 3-24, with 3:57 left in the first half. Midland led 45-36 at halftime.

Menning started the second half by hitting another 3-pointer, and hit another less than a minute later to make it a six-point game, 48-42, before the Tigers took their final lead of the game and the Warriors took over.

Voss finished with 26 points to pace the Tigers, who hit 12 3-pointers and shot nearly 36 percent from the field. Menning had 20 points, including six 3-pointers, and Trae Bergh added 10 points. Voss also had eight rebounds and Luke Bamberg had six assists. The Tigers went 13-for-17 from the line and had 33 rebounds and seven turnovers.

Ben Imig scored a game-high 28 points for Midland, which shot better than 54 percent from the field. Marcus Franklin added 20 points, Galen Gullie added 13 and Alex Starkel had 10 points and 12 rebounds. The Warriors went 11-for-15 from the line and had 43 rebounds and 11 turnovers.

Dakota Wesleyan is back at home Wednesday, Jan. 29, when it hosts Morningside College at 8 p.m.