DCC Takes Care of Business against Colorado Northwestern
Playing their 6th game in 9 days, the Dawson Community College Buccaneers led wire to wire in beating the Colorado Northwestern Spartans 76-70 at the Gillette Pronghorn Classic. The Bucs started strong with buckets from Simon Falokun and Tate Savoie. The Bucs built the largest lead of the game when they went up by 14 with 2:48 remaining. It was a sloppy first half with both teams getting whistled for fouls frequently. Each team shot 21 free throws in the opening half with the Bucs netting 16 while the Spartans made 15. Neither team shot particularly well from the field with DCC making only 35% and CNW making 25%. Falokun led the Bucs with 8 points and 8 rebounds. No Colorado Northwestern player scored more than 5 points in the opening half. The Bucs outscored the Spartans 14-2 in the paint and led 37-31 at the intermission.
Dawson maintained control of the game throughout the 2nd half and had their largest lead with 5 minutes remaining when they got up by 17. Colorado Northwestern didn’t give up and managed to cut into the lead with some free throws and a couple of 3-pointers by John Parker, but they never managed to tie it up and Travon Hamilton made some clutch free-throws to seal a 76-70 victory for the Bucs. They shot 11-13 from the free-throw line in the 2nd half. Falokun scored another double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Brent Finn added 12 points and Hamilton had 10 points. Dawson shot 40% for the game, but only 15% from 3-point range (3-19). Colorado NW shot 33% from the field and 23% from 3-point range.
DCC Coach Joe Peterson commented, “Offensively we didn’t have our best day, shooting a low percentage and forcing too many shots, but we dug down defensively and got stops when we needed to. We held their three leading scorers to single digits and controlled the game from start to finish.”
The Bucs return home on Monday night to play Little Bighorn College at 5:30 pm.
