Dawson Drops One on the Road at Williston State
The Dawson Buccaneer's season best six game winning streak was snapped on Thursday night by the Williston State College Tetons. Williston built up a twenty point lead in the first half and cruised to the easy victory 86-68. The loss drops the Buccaneers to 15-7 overall and 3-1 in Mon-Dak Conference play.
"It was a really disappointing night," shared Dawson Coach Joe Peterson. "We had a very simple game plan, but couldn't carry that out on the court at all. In my opinion, it is nothing physical at all. We just don't always come with the right mentality. As a coach, it's my job to figure out how to make that happen on a consistent basis."
It was a close game in the early stages until Eden Hobbs took over for Williston, scoring 24 first half points. Hobbs made 10 of his 16 shots from the field and 4 of 5 from the three-point line. Dawson, on the other hand, only managed to make 11 of their 39 shots as a team in the first half and a paltry 1-11 from the three-point line.
"Hobbs got to the rim any time he wanted to in the first half," continued Peterson. "We couldn't guard him and we didn't rotate over to help when he got past us. In contrast, we took so many bad shots that I lost track. We didn't run any offense and we didn't play together. That's a bad recipe."
Williston took a comfortable 46-28 lead into the locker room at halftime. The visiting Bucs tried to get back into the game with several second half runs, but Williston always had the answer each time and Dawson never really was a serious threat. Most of the statistical categories were surprisingly close in the lop-sided win, except for three-point shooting. Williston made 11 of their 28 attempts while Dawson only made 4 of their 23. That 21 point differential was a key factor.
Hobbs finished with 28 points to lead all scorers. Brandon Hymes led Dawson with 19 points and 7 rebounds.
The Bucs will return home on Monday to host United Tribes Technical College at 7:30 pm.
