Tiger men upset No. 6 Hastings

MITCHELL, S.D. – The Dakota Wesleyan University men's basketball team pushed its current winning streak to five games, and did so in impressive fashion Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers picked up their 10^th win of the year and fifth straight Saturday when they upset No. 6 Hastings College 98-84 at the Corn Palace. The loss was just the fourth of the year for the Broncos, who are now 12-4 overall and 6-2 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. DWU is 10-7 overall and 3-4 and tied for sixth in the league.

Hastings snagged an early lead Saturday afternoon, but Jalen Voss scored the first seven points of the game for DWU, including a three to put the Tigers up 7-6. Luke Bamberg and Jade Miller each added a three and Bergh and Voss scored to put DWU up 11, 17-6, with 14:15 left in the first half. Miller and Bergh hit back-to-back threes a few minutes later to make it a 16-point game, 27-11, and Stephen Lee added yet another three to put the Tigers up 19, 32-13, with 8:34 remaining in the first half.

Hastings put together a 15-3 run to cut DWU's lead to seven, 35-28, with 4:45 left in the half, but Menning and Miller each hit a three and Bergh added a 3-pointer to push the Tigers' lead back to 14, 46-32, with 3:01 left in the half. The Broncos made another short run and cut DWU's lead to eight, but Bergh hit a three to help keep DWU up 10, 52-42, at halftime.

Bergh and Sawyer Gibson each hit 3-pointers early in the second half to help DWU maintain a double-digit lead, but the Broncos cut the gap to four, 64-60, with 13:53 left to play. The Tigers went on a 12-4 run that included a three from Miller to push their lead back to 12, 76-64, and free throws from Voss, Tate Martin and Stephen Lee helped DWU hold on to a 14-point lead. A 3-pointer by Menning with 3:16 left put DWU up 17, and Bergh made it a 19-point game again with a layup to make it 96-77 with 2:04 remaining.

Voss finished with a game-high 27 points to pace DWU, which shot better than 60 percent from the field. Bergh and Miller each added 22 points – including four 3-pointers – and Menning finished with 13 points. Voss also had nine rebounds and Martin had eight assists. DWU went 14-for-29 from long range and 14-for-22 from the line. The Tigers had 35 rebounds and 12 turnovers.

Brady Lollman led Hastings with 22 points and Zach Lenagh added 20 points and seven rebounds. Tobin Reinwald also had 19 points for the Broncos, who shot 51.7 percent from the field and hit seven 3-pointers. Hastings went 17-for-23 from the line and had 27 rebounds and 15 turnovers.

DWU is on the road Wednesday, Jan. 8, when it travels to Orange City, Iowa, to take on Northwestern College at 8 p.m.