Casper Beats Dawson on the Last Shot
Channing Cade scored a reverse layup with three seconds left to give the Casper College Thunderbirds an 88-86 win over the visiting Dawson Community College Buccaneers. The Bucs last gasp effort fell short. The game had 10 ties and 13 lead changes. Dawson falls to 6-3 on the season and will face Western Wyoming College on Saturday at 2:00 pm in their final game of the Casper College Thanksgiving Classic.
"The only way to win road games against tough teams is to defend and rebound. We couldn't get stops in the final three minutes without fouling and we didn't rebound the entire game like we needed to," shared Dawson Coach Joe Peterson. "We gave ourselves a chance up to the final possession on the road against a really talented team, but it hurts to not finish it off. Little things make a big difference and every possession matters. I hope we can learn a lot from this and show some growth in some of these areas."
The Thunderbirds took control of the game in the first half with a strong opening nine minutes to put them up by ten. Over the next nine minutes, Dawson outscored them by fifteen points and took their largest lead of the game, five points, with 2:49 remaining. In a precursor to what was to come, Channing Cade scored the last basket of the first half with three seconds to go to pull the home team within one point, 41-40. Zaire Richardson had a good twenty minutes for Casper with fourteen points. Casper shot 46% from the field, but only 14% from the three-point line (2-14). Dawson shot 43% from the field and 38% from the three point line.
The second half was back and forth from the start to the finish with eight ties and eleven lead changes. Dawson shot 50% from the field and Casper shot a sizzling 58%, getting most of their shots from inside the paint. Both teams made five three-pointers in the second half while shooting around 40% from the three-point line. With 3:42 remaining, Dawson took a four point lead on a steal from Brandon Hymes and a lay-up by Mikey Ngoyi. Nasir Washington answered for Casper with a three-pointer. After a Dawson miss, Channing Cade went to the free throw line and converted both to give Casper the lead. Dawson missed again and Cade earned another trip to the free throw line where he made two more to give Casper a three point advantage, 85-82, with two minutes remaining. Two possessions later Dawson closed the gap with an alley-oop from Brandon Hymes to Aries Lewis. Richardson converted one of two free throws on Casper's next possession. Brandon Hymes then made two free throws for Dawson to tie it up at 86. Matt Kinzeler drew a charging foul to win the ball back for Dawson and then got a good look from the three point line with 30 seconds left. Kinzeler made five of his nine attempts in the game from long range, but this shot rattled around and fell out, setting up the dramatic conclusion.
For the game, Dawson was outscored in the paint, 46-30. Casper also won the rebounding battle 38-31. The Buccaneers did force 16 turnovers and their bench outscored the Thunderbirds 31-3. Washington and Cade each scored 22 points for Casper. Kinzeler led Dawson with 19 points. Mikey Ngoyi added 14 points. Brandon Hymes scored 12 points to go along with 8 assists, 4 rebounds and 4 steals.
