No. 10 Tigers upset No. 1 Morningside

MITCHELL, S.D. – As the final buzzer sounded and the Corn Palace crowd rose to its' feet, the No. 10 Dakota Wesleyan University men's basketball team upset No. 1 Morningside College, 78-75 in a Great Plains Athletic Conference top-10 showdown Saturday in Mitchell.

 Less than a minute into the game, Ty Hoglund (Dell Rapids, S.D.) knocked down a jump shot to open the scoring. The scoring was limited as both defenses held tough with neither team reaching double-digit scoring in the first five minutes.

 With just over 13 minutes to play in the half and the shot clock running down, Bradley Dean (Pierre, S.D.) banked in a 3-point attempt to the delight of the Tiger faithful.

 A minute later, Mason Larson (Langford, S.D.) made a jumper to tie the game at 15. However, the Mustangs (24-2, 16-2 GPAC) went on a 10-4 run to take a 25-19 lead with 7:13 to play in the half.

 Coming out of a timeout, Dean nailed another 3-pointer, assisted by Koln Oppold (Sioux Falls, S.D.) to pull the Tigers (19-6, 11-5 GPAC) within a basket.

 Following a Jeffrey Schuch (Dell Rapids, S.D.) layup, Hoglund made a layup of his own to give the Tigers their first lead of the game.

 With 4:30 to play in the half, Schuch found himself open from beyond the 3-point line. He took advantage of the spacing and knocked down his shot. Larson followed this play up with a shot from deep, as DWU took a 38-35 lead into halftime. 

 Minutes into the second half, Hoglund found Larson cutting to the basket as he flushed the ball down with a dunk to enliven the Tiger crowd. Following the dunk, Samuel McCloud (Rapid City, S.D.) made a 3-pointer to push the lead to nine points.

 Midway through the second half, Larson snagged an offensive rebound following a missed 3-pointer and put his layup in to give the Tigers an 11-point lead. Two minutes later, Hoglund buried a 3-pointer to end a Morningside run to push the lead back to 10 points. 

 With just under two minutes to play in the game, Larson blocked a layup attempt by Morningside as Hoglund came down with the rebound. He pitched the ball ahead to Dean for an easy layup to put the DWU crowd into a frenzy. 

 Moments later, Hoglund missed a front-end of a one-and-one. But Schuch grabbed the offensive rebound and put it back up for a layup. With less than a minute to play, Alex Borchers of Morningside made consecutive 3-pointers to pull the Mustangs within a point.

 After fouling Hoglund, he sank both of his free throws to put DWU back up by three points. The Tigers fouled Morningside to send them to the free-throw line. Following a missed free throw attempt, Ace Zorr (Harrisburg, S.D.) ripped down the rebound as the clock expired to hand DWU the upset over No.1 Morningside.

 Hoglund paced the team with 24 points, six rebounds and four assists, as Larson added 23 points and nine rebounds. Dean came off the bench to contribute 13 points and three rebounds in 33 minutes of play.

 The Tigers battle GPAC rival, No. 18 Mount Marty College at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Yankton, S.D.