TIGERS UNABLE TO GET SEASON SWEEP OVER MUSTANGS, COME UP SHORT ON THE ROAD 84-79
Sioux City, Iowa –
The Dakota Wesleyan men's basketball team came up just shy of the season sweep over Morningside this evening. The Tigers battled with the Mustangs for forty minutes and clawed their way back into the game several times after getting down by double-digits. Randy Rosenquist Jr. led with 18 points while Samuel Aslesen and Diang Gatluak followed with fifteen and fourteen points respectively.
Highlighted Player – Randy Rosenquist Jr. – 18 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds
Stat Leaders:
Points – Randy Rosenquist Jr. (18)
Assists – Randy Rosenquist Jr. (7)
Rebounds – Diang Gatluak (9)
Blocks – Diang Gatluak (1)
Recap –
After the Tigers got upset over Morningside earlier this season at home, they traveled to Sioux City with the hopes to upset the Mustangs again. The DWU men's basketball team struggled through the opening minutes of the contest before Kallan Herman swished a fifteen-footer from the top of the key. DWU would not score again for nearly four minutes and found themselves trailing by seven. Jakob Dobney would score for the Tigers and kicked off a 13-4 run for DWU and the score would be tied up at 15 a piece thanks to an Oliver Vincent triple. After getting the score tied up, the Tigers let themselves get back down by as many as eight points. As the first half got down to under six minutes, the Tigers were able to put Morningside's main scorer on the bench with foul trouble and the Tigers we able to chip into the lead. Down five, the Tigers had two seconds on the shot clock and Head Coach Matt Wilber called a quick timeout to draw a quick play. With the ball near the baseline corner, Ethan Determan ran off a set of staggered screens at the elbows and circled back underneath the basket and Randy Rosenquist Jr. was able to thread the ball between Morningside defenders to Determan. As the shot clock expired, Determan went up with the reverse layup and kissed it off the top off the glass to get the shot to fall. Diang Gatluak followed up a few possessions later to cut the lead to one with a flashy up and under layup and then scored again to take the lead. As time started to expire in under a minute, the Mustangs regained the lead to four. With less than twenty seconds, the Tiger offense was going to hang onto the ball for the last shot. Rosenquist worked his defender on the left wing, drove the baseline and put up a shot that rolled off the rim into Gatluak's hands. Diang went up with the tip in and scored the bucket for his 11th point and cut the Morningside led to 36-34 as the teams went to the locker room for the break.
Coming out of the break, Morningside added to their lead and looked to do it again with a dunk, but Samuel Aslesen was able to block that attempt away. As Aslesen trailed the offense, he caught the ball on the left wing and drilled the three ball to give the Tigers their first bucket of the second half. The Tigers weren't going to go away quietly. With that Aslesen triple, it started a scoring barrage. Rosenquist scored nine in a row for DWU and Aslesen and Blaze Lubbers each contributed a three-point bucket to take a one-point lead at the thirteen-minute mark. Morningside changed it up and went on a 10-point run to lead 63-53 with 10:27 on the clock and were able to get some Tigers in foul trouble. Gatluak went to the bench with four fouls and DWU went on a quick 8-0 run of their own to make it a two-point game, advantage to the Mustangs. Dakota Wesleyan was able to stay within two possessions of Morningside for a few more minutes but gave up an open three point shot when they tried to double the post and Morningside bumped their lead back to eight. Gatluak and Rosenquist were doing everything they could to keep DWU in the game. Down seven, Rosenquist brough the ball across the timeline in front of his bench and dished a dime to Gatluak for the and-one layup to make the old school three pointer. Rosenquist would find Aslesen on a screen and roll two possessions later to stay within four of the Mustangs. Morningside's coaching staff called a timeout once they got back out ahead to six points, but as the teams came back to play, Rosenquist came down the floor and drilled his third three-point bucket. Down by three, the Tigers had to get a stop on defense and were able to contest a layup and get the rebound. With shot clock and game clock half a second a part and time winding down, Rosenquist looked to tie up the game. He made a quick jab baseline that shook his defender off him just enough to get a three pointer off, but the shot rolled out of the rim and the Mustangs were able to control the rebound. DWU had to foul, and the Mustangs iced the game with a pair of free throws and defeated Dakota Wesleyan 84-79. Rosenquist Jr. led the Tigers with 18 points and Aslesen and Gatluak followed with their 15- and 14-point performances. The Tigers drop to 9-9 in the GPAC with two games remaining in the conference schedule.
Up Next for the Tigers –
Dakota Wesleyan will take this weekend off and then come back to the Corn Palace for Senior Night against Dordt. Tip off is set for Wednesday, February 21st at 7:45 p.m.
