Second-half Doane surge too much for Tiger men

CRETE, Neb. – The Dakota Wesleyan University men's basketball team was down just two points to Doane College midway through the second half, but the Doane Tigers went on a late run to pull away for an 86-76 win over DWU Saturday afternoon in Crete, Neb.

DWU is now 13-11 overall and 6-8 in Great Plains Athletic Conference play. Doane evened its overall record at 12-12 and is 5-10 in the league.

The DWU Tigers led by five at halftime, 45-39, thanks to a three by Trae Bergh, and Jalen Voss scored two quick baskets to push their lead to nine early in the second half. Doane tied the game at 52 on a three by Nick Reed with 16:38 left to play as part of a 25-8 run that put the Doane Tigers up eight, 64-56, with 12:54 left on the clock.

But Trae Bergh hit a pair of free throws and Kris Menning hit a three a few minutes later to make it a four-point game, 66-62, and Voss hit two more free throws to make it a two-point game, 66-64, with 9:38 left to play. From there, Deonte Holt hit a three to spark a 14-4 Doane run that ended with an 80-68 lead for the Tigers with 5:06 left to play, and they were able to maintain that lead for the remainder of the game.

DWU snagged an early lead, but Doane took its first lead of the game on a three by Dominique Smith and a layup by Reid Williams to go up 9-7 with 16:32 left in the first. Doane pushed its lead to four on several occasions, but Voss scored to give the Tigers the lead again, this time at 23-22 with 9:55 left in the half, and a three-point play by Menning put DWU up six, 30-24. The two teams exchanged baskets and Bergh hit two threes to keep the Tigers' lead at six, and later hit another three to make it a seven-point game, and the sophomore guard hit another three with 28 seconds left in the half to make it a five-point game at halftime.

Voss finished with a team-high 25 points for DWU, which shot 43.3 percent. The Tigers shot 52.9 percent in the first half, including 7-of-15 from long range, but 33.3 percent in the second, including a 2-for-14 clip from three-point range. Bergh hit six threes and finished with 20 points and Bamberg had11 points. He and Voss each had seven rebounds and Tate Martin had 10 assists. The Tigers went 9-for-15 from the line and had 36 rebounds and eight turnovers.

Reed finished with a game-high 29 points to go with 18 rebounds and Smith added 28 points for Doane. The two combined to go 20-for-38 from the field, including 8-for-14 from long range. Holt added 12 points for Doane, which shot 52.5 percent from the field, including better than 60 percent in the second half. The Tigers hit 10 threes, went 14-for-17 from the line and had 36 rebounds and 10 turnovers.

Dakota Wesleyan is on the road twice and at home once in a busy week next week. The Tigers play Morningside College at 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 3, in a makeup game from earlier this year in Sioux City, Iowa. Wednesday, DWU travels to Sioux Center, Iowa, to take on Dordt College and the Tigers are at home Saturday against Concordia University.