Bucs Win Another Close One
For the third game in a row, the Dawson Buccaneers won a close contest. They won their last two games by one point and three points respectively. Saturday night against the visiting Northwest College Trappers, they won by four points, 92-88. It was the third time Dawson has beat Northwest on the year. The Trappers have only lost four other times all year.
"I could easily make an argument that they are the best team that we have faced this year," shared Dawson Coach Joe Peterson. "They play hard, play well together and they are smart and skilled. More than all of that, they are a tough team. I loved how we protected the paint tonight and rebounded for forty minutes. They made some runs at us and couldn't miss down the stretch, but we didn't panic. We just stayed solid and did what we needed to so that we could close out the game."
Dawson won despite the visitors shooting 16-36 (44.4%) from the three-point line. Inside the three-point line, the Bucs held them to 14-36 (38.8%) shooting.
"It's not very common for a team to make more 3's in a game than 2's," continued Peterson. "Even guys that don't normally make them were making them tonight. Our guys didn't get discouraged. They stayed tough and stayed the course."
The Trappers came out of the gate shooting from deep. Mateo Trujillo hit the first one. Kai Guess responded for Dawson before Brayden Bradshaw made another for the visitors. A few minutes later Bradshaw made a lay-up and Trey Rinn made a free throw to give Northwest their biggest lead of the game 19-14. The Bucs answered with a three-pointer by Zakai Owens and a lay-up by Owens to tie it up. The run continued with a lay-up by Ade Onaleye, two free throws from Guess, a three-pointer by Matt Kinzeler and another from Guess to cap the 15-0 run. The Bucs turned the five point deficit into a ten point lead, 29-19 halfway through the opening half. Northwest stormed back to close the gap a few minutes later. Onaleye scored on a lay-up with 26 second left in the half to give Dawson a 42-39 lead heading into the break. Kai Guess led Dawson in scoring in the first half with 14 points. The Bucs made 7-13 from the three point line in the first half.
Just like in the first half, Bradshaw made two three-pointers in the early going and cut the deficit two just two points. Dawson scored the next seven points to take a nine point lead. After a couple of Trapper baskets, the Bucs went on another mini-run. They outscored the visitors 9-2 on a lay-up by Aries Lewis, free throws by Delray Lilley, a lay-up by Mikey Ngoyi and a three-pointer by Ngoyi. It was their first double digit lead of the second half, 63-51. Dawson kept a pretty comfortable lead until Travis Theran Archibald made back to back three-pointers to pull Northwest within two points, 69-71. The Bucs put together another 9-2 run after that to go up by nine points with a little over six minutes remaining. It looked like they would put them away, but Northwest wouldn't go away. The Trappers got to the free throw line multiple times and then in the final 1:30 of the game, they made three three-pointers. The final one made it 88-89 with 13 seconds remaining. Kai Guess made two free throws for Dawson and after a stop on the defensive end, Delray Lilley made another free throw to give them a four point cushion with three seconds left.
In the second half, Dawson shot 12-17on two pointers. They also outrebounded the visitors by ten. Dawson put up 50 points in the half.
The 92 points by Dawson were the most points scored against Northwest College this season in 18 games. The Bucs finished the game shooting 51.7% from the field, 44% from 3 (11-25) and 65.5% (19-29) from the free throw line. The hosts converted a nearly perfect 16-18 shots inside the paint. Northwest outscored Dawson 21-11 on points off turnovers, but Dawson had the advantage in points in the paint (38-26), 2nd chance points (16-10) and bench points (41-31). Dawson also outrebounded the Trappers 46-35 overall.
Kai Guess led Dawson in scoring with 21 points on only 8 shots in 22 minutes. Brandon Hymes contributed 11 points and Ade Onaleye finished with 10 points and 5 rebounds. All 12 Buccaneers scored and eight players scored at least 7 points in a balanced effort. Bradshaw led Northwest with 19 points and a game high 10 rebounds.