Dawson Bucs Rebound to Beat Western Wyoming
The Dawson Community College Buccaneers rebounded to get a hard fought 70-67 win over a tough Western Wyoming College team on Saturday night in the Gillette Border Wars Tournament. Coming into the game, the Mustangs were 9-4 and had won four of their last five with their only loss being a 3-point setback to #1 ranked Indian Hills. The Bucs entered the game at 8-3 overall, but had lost three of their last four games.
“This was our biggest win of the season up to this point,” commented Dawson Coach Joe Peterson. “Western Wyoming has such a good program. They are well coached, very balanced, and battle tested from a tough schedule. I loved how hard we competed tonight and we took a step forward defensively and a step forward in being able to finish in the paint against size and length. We’ve been struggling a little lately, but this shows we can compete with the top tier teams.”
The Bucs took an early lead behind some strong play down low from David Ajanaku. Forcing 11 turnovers led to 14 points for Dawson as they led for the entire first half with their biggest lead being nine points with 7:16 remaining. Joe Mpoyo led the way with 12 points in a very balanced Dawson attack in which they shot 52% from the field. It was a 39-37 half-time lead for DCC.
Both teams went cold from beyond the arc in the second half. Western Wyoming shot 2-13 from long range while Dawson shot 0-9, but the Bucs were able to still get scoring in the paint. WWC kept it close by shooting 8-9 from the free throw line and controlling the boards for the game 41-33. There were four ties and four lead changes in the second half. Jackson Keil missed a 3-pointer with 15 seconds to go that would have given the Mustangs a lead and Ty Buckmon got the rebound for Dawson before he was fouled and calmly sank two free throws to give the Bucs a 69-65 lead with nine seconds left. Franklin Agu collected an offensive rebound and put it back in to bring WWC within two points, but there was only 1.3 seconds left. Dawson’s Ajanaku made one free throw and Western Wyoming’s desperation heave came up short to give Dawson the three point win.
Dawson outscored WWC in the paint 40-32 and their bench had a 28-11 advantage in the game. They held the Mustangs to 29% shooting in the second half and 36% for the game. Mpoyo had a game high 16 points for Dawson who had seven players score seven points or more in the game. Jackson Keil led Western Wyoming with 14 points.
Dawson will finish out the Border Wars tournament with a game against Casper College on Sunday afternoon.
