Dawson Men Fall at Nationals
The Dawson Buccaneers made their first ever appearance at the NJCAA D1 National Tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas as a #19 seed, but came up short in their first round game. Indian River State College out of Florida ended DCC’s magical season with an 85-75 win. The Buccaneers never quite got it going in this game and were outscored in each half by five points. Indian River scored the first basket at the 17:58 mark in the first half and never relinquished that lead. Dawson’s season high 23 turnovers led to 26 points for the #14 seed, IRSC.
Late in the first half, Jalen Tot connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to bring Dawson within two points with 2:53 remaining, but AJ Cajuste responded with a 3-pointer of his own on the other end. On the Bucs next possession, Charles Lampten scored on a post-move to cut the deficit to two again at 32-30, but on the very next possession, Lampten picked up his 3rd foul and was subbed out. Two straight Dawson turnovers led to two transition lay-ups and the lead was back at seven points. At the close of the half, Jalen Tot got a steal, kicked it ahead to his twin brother Jajuan, who fed it back to Jalen for his fourth 3-pointer of the first half, making the half-time score 40-35.
The Bucs made another run in the early going of the 2nd half when Riley Spoonhunter and Michael Jok nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to pull within a single point, but First Team All-American Linton Brown answered with a pull-up jumper. Indian River controlled the game for the rest of the way with the lead hovering between 8-14 points most of the way.
Even though Dawson had a size advantage, Indian River outscored Dawson 48-26 in the paint for the game and they shot 48% compared to Dawson’s 40%. They also outrebounded Dawson 44-36.
Dawson Coach Joe Peterson said, “Turnovers really hurt us tonight. We just gave away the ball too many times and allowed them to convert them into easy baskets. When we were able to get back defensively, we made it hard for them to score. It would have been a different story if we were stronger with the ball. It is a tough way to end our season, but we have a lot to be proud of, winning 3 championships and making history. This group sacrificed a lot for each other and exceeded everyone’s expectations. Hopefully this will motivate these freshmen to work harder and come back even hungrier next year!”
The Tot twins were both in double figures with Jajuan scoring a season high 16 and Jalen contributing 12 on his four first half 3-pointers. Cordell Stinson added 12 points. Linton Brown scored a game high 28 points on 12-19 shooting for IRSC. Abdoulaye Thiam had 20 points on 9-10 shooting. Antrell Charlton flirted with a quadruple-double, finishing with 9 assists, 8 rebounds, 7 steals and 6 points.
Indian River improves to 19-3 on the season and advances to play #3 seed College of Southern Idaho in the next round. Dawson finishes the season 23-3.
