Dawson Handles Lake Region in Semifinals
For the second straight night, the Dawson Buccaneers stormed out of the gates to a big early lead and cruised to victory. The Bucs handled the Lake Region State College Royals 118-90 in the semifinals of the Buster Gillis Mon Dak Conference Tip off Tournament. The championship game on Sunday will be a rematch of last year's Tip off Tournament Championship between the two Montana schools, Dawson Community College and Miles Community College.
"Our press was tough tonight," shared Dawson Coach Joe Peterson. "Our guys were really flying around and making it hard on them. I thought we played with greater intensity for longer stretches. It seemed like everyone was focused and ready to go as soon as they got in. We are deep and have a lot of different weapons that can step up on any given night."
Michael Murphy made back to back three-pointers on Dawson's first two possessions to help get the party started. Their defensive pressure forced many turnovers in the early going as the Bucs raced out to a twenty point lead eight minutes into the game. They built that margin up to almost thirty points for much of the final eight minutes of the half and ended the opening twenty minutes with a 61-37 lead. Dawson forced 18 turnovers in the half and scored 18 points off those turnovers. They also limited the Royals to 2-14 shooting from the three point line. Both teams actually shot about the same from the field, but Dawson was able to take 16 more shots and 9 more free throws because of the turnovers they forced as well as 9 offensive rebounds. Dawson was 13-15 from the charity stripe. Matt Kinzeler led the way with 12 points in the opening stanza.
The second half was high scoring for both teams and much more balanced with Dawson outscoring Lake Region 57-53. The Royals never made a serious threat to get back in the game as Dawson sailed to their second blowout win of the season.
For the game, the Bucs shot 42% (40-95) from the field, 33% (13-39) from 3-point range and 86% (25-29) from the free throw line. They held the Royals to 39% from the field and 20% from three-point range. Dawson outrebounded Lake Region 51-44 and their bench outscored them 48-25.
All fourteen Buccaneers contributed again tonight with twelve getting in the scoring column and all fourteen grabbing a rebound. Ten of them scored at least six points and five Buccaneers reached double figures, led by the Louisiana duo of Matt Kinzeler and Aries Lewis with 19 points each. Murphy finished with 16 points, connecting on 5-6 from long range. Kai Guess, Kuich Gatwech and Mikey Ngoyi also finished with double digits. Akok Ajou led Lake Region with 23 points.
Dawson and Miles will face off in the championship game in New Town, North Dakota on Sunday afternoon at around 5:15 pm.
