(DCC Athletics release)
GLENDIVE – The Dawson College basketball men won their third game in a row on Monday night beating Bismarck State College on the road 99-94.
It was a close contest all night that featured 11 ties and 11 lead changes. The Mystics got up early 10-5 before Dawson went on a 15-2 run. The Bucs maintained a lead for most of the first half behind the scoring of Kayden Hitt who came off the bench to connect on all four of his field goal attempts, including three 3-pointers, scoring 12 points. Devin Collins snagged 10 rebounds in the opening half. The Mystics were led by KyJuan Johnson’s 16 points and Austin Slaughter’s 10 points. Marcus Stephens connected on a pull-up jumper in the closing seconds of the half to give Dawson a 46-42 lead going into the break.
In the second half, Dawson was able to slow down Johnson who only scored one point after intermission, but guard Grant Kohlus caught fire and scored 18 points in the final twenty minutes. Slaughter also kept going strong and helped Bismarck to pull ahead multiple times. Kayden Hitt’s hot shooting continued in the second half for Dawson as he hit 4 more shots, including three more from 3-point range. He finished a perfect 8-8 from the field to score 23 points in 17 minutes of action. Down by four with five minutes remaining, Dawson turned up the pressure defensively and forced turnovers on three straight possessions. Stephens capitalized on the other end by scoring on a drive, Jaron Masis followed it up with a rebound and putback and then Kolten Hitt made a strong drive to the basket and finished. Bismarck went to the free throw line 31 times on the night, but only made 55% from the charity stripe. With a lead in hand in the final minute, CJ Nelson made three free throws down the stretch to help secure the win for the visitors.
Dawson’s bench outscored Bismarck 51-13 and the Bucs shot an efficient 11-22 from long range. Kayden Hitt paced four Buccaneers in double figures with his 23 points. Stephens finished with 16, Camron Dunfee had 13 and Masis had 10 points. Devin Collins had a game high 15 rebounds in 19 minutes and Reece Green had 13 rebounds in 20 minutes, including 7 on the offensive end. For Bismarck, Kohlus netted 25 points, Slaughter scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Johnson finished with 17 points
“I’m glad we made the plays down the stretch that we needed to,” said Bucs’ head coach Joe Peterson. “It was a weird day with our bus problems and frustrations with officials, but we kept battling to pull it out. It seems like a different guy steps up for us each game and tonight Kayden gave us a big lift. It’s not easy to win on the road, but we have now picked up three conference road wins.”
The win puts Dawson at 6-2 in conference which is good enough for a three way tie for second place with NDSCS and Lake Region. The Bucs will travel to Wahpeton to play NDSCS on Thursday before returning home on Sunday for a match-up with Lake Region.
Transportation mechanical issues were just the beginning for DCC’s women. As the saying goes, “when it rains, it pours.” And that surely happened as Dawson CC was unable to have any control in the game against the Lady Mystics, losing 67-96.
Game results pretty much summarize how the night went for the Lady Buccaneers. They had a season high 43 turnovers, allowing Bismarck to capitalize 45 points from them. All freshmen from Bismarck’s bench scored 53 points. NJCAA leading scorer in the nation, Amber Stevahn, led the game with 28 points and 6 steals. Dawson committed 30 fouls, with two players fouling out. The Lady Mystics used a full court 1-2-2 zone press that punished Dawson all night. The Lady Bucs had no answer for it. The only positive Dawson could take away was outrebounding the home team 50-46.
Alexius Foster scored 22 points, along with 6 rebounds and 3 steals. Ejanae Coopwood contributed 13 points, 9 rebounds and 5 steals.
Head Coach Romeo Lagmay, Jr. was very disappointed in the team’s performance, “It was awful. There are no other teams in conference losing like this. 43 turnovers is shameful! We are by far better than that, but obviously tonight our ball handling was horrendous! That type of game happens in non-conference, learning early in the season what not to do. We have an identity crisis, and we need to pull together quickly because this is not the time to allow teams to score 45 points off of our turnovers. We usually manage to bounce back from games like this. So let’s find out what team shows up next game.”
Dawson is now 4-4 in conference, standing in the middle of the pack. They are 14-10 on the season, and will be back on the road to play North Dakota State College of Science on Thursday, February 7, 2019.
