Monroe Invitational Tournament
Game 1- Monroe University Mustangs 93 Dawson Community College 77
The undefeated Dawson Buccaneers dropped their first game of the season on the road in the Monroe Invitational Tournament against the host school, the Monroe University Mustangs, 93-77. Dawson turned it over 24 times, leading to 39 points. Monroe shot 50% from the field in the game.
"We didn't guard very well tonight," shared Bucs Coach Joe Peterson. "We allowed Monroe to go wherever they wanted. It's almost impossible to win if you can't guard people. And when you combine that with not taking care of the ball, you are just constantly shooting yourself in the foot. Good teams don't do that."
Despite all of their challenges, the Bucs were only down six points at half, and eventually took the lead in the second half briefly. With 8:24 remaining in the game, Dawson was trailing by four points and had the ball. Less than a minute later, they found themselves behind by twelve points thanks to three turnovers and some bad defense. With four more turnovers in the next three minutes, the deficit grew to nineteen points and put Monroe firmly in the drivers' seat. All in all, it was an 18-3 run over a four minute stretch.
Naceiar Kirksey paced five Mustangs in double figures with 19 points. Aries Lewis led four Dawson players in double figures with 16 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks.
Game 2- Allegany College of Maryland 88 Dawson Community College 77
On Saturday afternoon in New Rochelle, New York, the Dawson Buccaneers fell to the Allegany College of Maryland Trojans 88-77. It was their second straight loss and drops them to 5-2 on the season. The Trojans took a hold of the game late in the first half and went up by double digits and their lead stayed around ten points for most of the second half.
"It was a disappointing result," said Dawson Coach Joe Peterson. "I thought we would play much better, but they outworked us and simply outplayed us. We are really struggling to take care of the ball. Historically our teams have always been good at gaining many extra possessions by winning the turnover battle and winning the rebounding battle. Lately, it has been the opposite and that makes it very hard to win, especially on the road."
Though it was supposed to be a high scoring affair between two fast paced teams, it started really slowly with neither team scoring in the first three minutes of the game. It stayed even for quite a while with five ties over the next ten minutes before Allegany started connecting from long range, making consecutive three's and pulling away in the final two minutes of the half. The Bucs just could not get going offensively, shooting 31% (11-35) from the field and 10% (1-10) from 3-point range in the half. Kuich Gatwech was the only bright spot with 11 points on 5-7 shooting. It didn't help that Dawson turned it over 13 times.
After the break, not much changed. Dawson did shoot it better (59% FG), but it wasn't enough to get them back in the game. Allegany went up by as much as 17 points before Dawson cut it to single digits late in the game. The second half scoring was even with 46 points each.
"All night it just felt like we were one or two plays from getting back into the game," continued Peterson. "But we never got the stops when we needed them defensively and couldn't ever put together a run."
Allegany shot 50% from the field for the game and 42% from 3-point range. That was the biggest difference between the two teams with the Trojans making 10-24 from deep and the Bucs only 5-22. Allegany also forced 21 turnovers.
Allegany was led by Darrien Ponder who finished with a game high 34 points on 12-17 shooting from the field and 7-11 from 3-point range. Dawson had three guys in double figures led by Brandon Hymes with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. Kuich Gatwech had 14 points and Ade Onaleye had 10.
Dawson will return home next Saturday to play Gillette College at 6:00 pm.
