DCC Bucs Get Crucial Road Win Over Lake Region State College 83-73
Their conference record may not look good, but the Dawson Community College Buccaneers are putting their mark on the conference race. They turned some heads with a close hard-fought loss against league leaders NDSCS on Monday, and then tonight they beat the 2nd place team in the conference on the road. Playing both games without their leading scorer, the Bucs don’t seem to be afraid of anyone. On Wednesday night in Devils Lake, North Dakota, the contest was close throughout. The game included 12 ties and 18 lead changes! The Bucs built a 7 point cushion in the 2nd half, but the Royals fought back to tie it with a little over a minute left. From there, Dawson managed to score the final 10 points to get the victory. Brent Finn had a tough night from the field, missing all of his shots until the final minute when he hit a crucial driving lay-up over 7’0 center Harvey Barr and drew the foul. It was Barr’s 5th foul which sent him to the bench and put Finn on the line where he finished out the three-point play. The Bucs stopped Lake Region on the ensuing possession and started to run the clock down. Stefan Stubbs came up with a crucial offensive rebound which forced the Royals to foul. The Bucs didn’t miss from the line in the final minute. Lake Region still had a chance to make it a game, but they picked up a foul on a ball-screen as Finn fought over it. It was a big win for the Bucs and lifted them into 5th place in the standings.
Dawson had a good night from the foul line, hitting 22 of 29 shots. They also controlled the board with a 48-41 advantage, including 14-8 on the offensive end and a 12-5 advantage on 2nd chance points. The visitors also only committed 13 turnovers compared to 19 for Lake Region. What pleased DCC Coach Joe Peterson the most was getting 20 assists. “We played very good team basketball tonight. We didn’t force up shots, but played within the system. It was good to see Kolton Wall get back to playing the way he is capable of and Tate Savoie came off the bench to give us a lift. It was a great team effort.”
The Bucs held Lake Region leading scorer Cedric Boone 8 points under his conference average and 2nd leading scorer Jordan Bolton 7 points under his average.
Stefan Stubbs once again led the way with 21 points and 9 rebounds. Gavin McPherson had a season best 8 rebounds to go along with 14 points and 4 assists. Brendon Chevannes contributed 15 points, 7 assists and 3 rebounds. Kolton Wall had 16 points and 6 rebounds. Kade Osborne didn’t score but came up with 7 rebounds and 3 assists.
Coach Peterson summarized the game, “For the first 39 minutes it was as close a college basketball game as you can have, but tonight we made the big plays on both ends of the floor in the final minute to give us the win. If we can stay consistent over these next few weeks, I don’t think anyone will want to play us when tournament time rolls around. We seem to be getting better every game.”
Dawson will return home for a Sunday afternoon matchup with United Tribes Technical College. The women play at 2:00 pm and the men play at 4:00 pm. It will be “Pink Night” as the ladies try to raise money for breast cancer awareness. Dawson will also be honoring former Buccaneer Nelson Burrell before the Men’s game. Burrell set the national single game scoring record in 1973 when he scored 80 points against Trinity Bible College.
