(Editor's note: DCC Athletics release)
GLENDIVE - In a rematch of last year’s Region XIII Men's Tournament Championship Game, the North Dakota State College of Science Wildcats got a little revenge on Dawson Community College Sunday with a 72-69 victory.
With about eight minutes to play, it looked like Dawson was ready to cruise to another championship as they held a ten point advantage, but the Wildcats came storming back with a 13-2 run to take the lead. Much of the scoring was from the free throw line where NDSCS scored 16 points in the second half while Dawson only scored 2 from the charity stripe.
In a game that contained 3 ties and 8 lead changes, NDSCS built a five point lead in the closing seconds before Dawson forced a turnover and Riley Spoonhunter connected on his 4th 3-pointer of the game on an out of bounds play to pull Dawson within two. The Wildcats got fouled again and made the first before missing the second. With 5 seconds left the Buccaneers raced down the court and got a good look at a game-tying 3-pointer, but it didn’t fall and the Wildcats escaped with the 72-69 comeback win. 6’3 freshman guard Micah Swallow was named the Tournament MVP.
Dawson Coach Joe Peterson shared, “It was a really good weekend for us at the Tip-Off Tournament. We learned a lot about ourselves and hopefully we can use this experience to make us better. The league looks really strong from top to bottom and there are going to be a lot of close games this year as teams battle for the championship. We have to take what we can from this and start looking ahead to our next game.”
Dawson was led in scoring by Mpoyo’s 20 points on 6-10 shooting from 3-point range. Spoonhunter added 12 points and Jajuan Tot had 11 points and 8 assists. JaQuan Sanders-Smith led NDSCS with 24 points and 6 rebounds.
