Dawson Loses to Top 5 Team on the Road
The Dawson Community College Buccaneers went toe to toe with one of the top teams in the country for the most of the first half on the road Friday night, but couldn’t put together a full forty minutes. Undefeated and ranked 5th in the country, College of Southern Idaho finished the first half strong to break a tie and go up by 9 heading into the break. They came out even stronger in the second half to put away the visitors 103-59.
The Bucs got off to a hot start behind Joe Mpoyo who scored their first 7 points and then Roniel Oguekwe slammed one home to put Dawson up by four points. The teams played pretty even for the first seven minutes before CSI went on a run to lead by 14 points with twelve minutes remaining. Dawson came storming back to tie the game at 32 with five minutes to go, but the Golden Eagles closed the half with a 14-5 run to lead 46-37. Mpoyo dueled with CSI’s Isaiah Moses in the first half. Mpoyo scored 13 points and Moses 15 points. No one else for either team was in double figures in the half. The teams were even on the boards, but CSI shot 53% compared to DCC’s 41% from the field. Dawson did shoot 50% from 3-point range in the first half (7-14) to keep them in the game.
Dawson went cold in the second half, shooting a measly 13% from the field. CSI heated up to shoot 57%. The hosts scored on their first three possessions of the second half and the rout was on. CSI dominated in the paint 52-14 for the game.
“We showed that we can compete with a great team tonight,” said Dawson Coach Joe Peterson. “To beat a team like that, you have to do all the little things right and also shoot the ball well. We did that for most of the first half, but in the second half when our shots weren’t falling, we hung our heads a bit and didn’t do all the little things. I thought we actually got a lot of good shots and got to the paint, but didn’t finish like we are capable of. It’s not fun getting blown out, but I have no doubt this game will make us better.”
Mpoyo finished with 16 points for Dawson while Chris Davidson and Aidan Fishell had 11 points each. For CSI, Moses and Nate Meithof each had 19 points.
Dawson is now 7-2 on the year and will get a chance to rebound on Saturday with a 3:00 pm match-up vs. Colorado Northwestern Community College.
