Dawson Survives Another Scare
After three blowout wins to start the season, the Dawson Buccaneers have found themselves in a deficit in the second half the past two nights at home. On Friday, they rallied from seven points down with just over seven minutes left to beat the visiting Eastern Wyoming College Lancers 79-75 to bump their record to 5-0 on the season. It was Dawson's lowest scoring output of the season.
"We are not playing anywhere near our potential right now," shared Dawson Coach Joe Peterson. "We don't have the right intensity and we aren't making smart decisions on offense. It was really ugly and painful to watch. We had great crowds and amazing support for these two home games, but unfortunately we didn't give them much to cheer for. We need to get back to playing Buccaneer basketball."
The game went back and forth in the opening stages until Dawson pulled ahead with a 9-0 run that started with a Kuich Gatwech three-pointer before Michael Murphy made a three-pointer and then scored a traditional three-point play on an offensive rebound. The run gave Dawson a 26-17 lead. The Bucs stretched the lead to ten points two times, but went into the half with a 43-36 advantage thanks to Kale Fasting's lay-up at the buzzer. Dawson controlled the boards 28-18, but shot a measly 4-17 from the three-point line.
"I just want our guys to play hard and make the right play," continued Peterson. "It is really a pretty simple game, but sometimes we try to complicate it."
Eastern Wyoming started the second half with a 10-1 run to take the lead 46-44. It stayed close for several minutes until the Lancers went on another 8-2 run to take their largest lead of the game, 71-64. Dawson scored the next six points on two free throws from Sharif Yakubu, a layup from Mikey Ngoyi and a layup by Brandon Hymes. Dawson claimed the lead for good with two more free throws from Yakubu with a minute remaining. There were eight ties and twelve lead changes in the game. Once again, just like the previous night, it was Brandon Hymes leading the way in the second half. Hymes scored 17 points in the final twenty minutes on 6-7 shooting and pulled down four more rebounds. Hymes made a free throw with three seconds to go to give Dawson the four point lead and close out the game. The Bucs held the Lancers to one field goal and four points in the final seven minutes of the game. Even though Dawson's cold shooting continued in the second half from three point range (2-9), their defense down the stretch secured the victory.
"I was pleased with how we defended at the end of the game and how we rebounded throughout," said Peterson. "Those are the only reasons we won these two games."
Dawson outrebounded EWC 44-33 for the game, including a 13-5 advantage on the offensive glass and a 19-7 advantage in second chance points.
Hymes finished with 20 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Kuich Gatwech, Ade Onaleye and Sharif Yakubu all scored 11 points. Isaiah Ayala led Eastern Wyoming with 14 points and a game high 10 rebounds.
