DWU escapes with win over Mount Marty

The Dakota Wesleyan University men’s basketball team couldn’t stop Mount Marty’s 3-point shooters all night Wednesday.

But the Lancers couldn’t figure out DWU’s post play, either.

In the end, the post play outranked the 3-point shots. Tiger senior Preston Broughton scored on a dunk and completed the three-point play after drawing a foul with 46 seconds left to play in the game to give DWU a 78-74 lead.

Spencer Yackley hit a pair of free throws with 20 seconds left to cut the lead to two, but Darrin Dorsey hit the back end of a pair of free throws to help preserve the Tigers’ 79-76 win at the Corn Palace.

“We executed fairly well down the stretch,” DWU coach John Hemenway said. “Brady (Wiebe) and Preston got to the basket and got a couple fouls, and Brady had a great pass to Preston for the game-winning basket. We just have to play better all 40 minutes.”

Mount Marty, whose 3-point shooting had been nearly spot-on throughout the game, had the chance to take a two-point lead just before Broughton’s big dunk. Trey Krier, who went 6-for-9 from 3-point range, pulled up for a 3-pointer that bounced off the rim and set up the Tigers for the game winning play.

Up until that point, however, it had been the Lancers’ 3-point shooting that kept them in the game. Menno native Bo Bruckner hit a 3-pointer early in the second half to give Mount Marty (1-10, 0-3) its first lead of the half, 50-49. Three of the Lancers’ next five long-range shots cut the deficit to two points, the last of which came with 3:27 to play and made it a 72-70 game.

“(Our 3-point shooting) has been kind of spotty, but it’s been getting better as the year’s gone on,” Mount Marty coach Jim Thorson said. Krier’s starting to get in the groove. It gives us a little more balance outside and inside with our big guys.”

The Tigers started the game with a quick 4-0 lead and eventually extended that to 17-7, thanks to a 3-pointer by Jacob Kneeland. They pushed that lead out to 24-13 before the Lancers started to make a comeback.

Mount Marty went on a 7-0 run — which ended with a 3-pointer by Krier — to make it a 26-23 game, and a three-point play by Justin Peters made it a 28-26 game.

DWU (7-2, 2-1) went on a 6-0 run for a 36-31 lead, but Weston Kusser hit a 3-pointer and Dan Harmon hit a shot at the buzzer to make it a two-point, 38-36 game.

“We got off to a pretty good start early in the game and had a 10- or 11-point lead, we just didn’t stretch it to 15 or 17 and really give them a big hole to get out of,” Hemenway said. “They were able to cut that down, and I thought in the second part of the first half, the momentum really shifted from us getting a nice lead to them cutting into it and making a ball game out of it.”

Wiebe led the Tigers with 25 points. Broughton had a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds and Mitch Bain added 14 points. DWU, which shot 53.6 percent from the field but just 18.8 percent from long range, had 31 rebounds to the Lancers’ 29.

Krier finished with 20 points for Mount Marty. Kusser added 13 and Jared Wall added 10 points and six rebounds. Mount Marty shot 46.4 percent from the field, including a 12-for-21 clip from 3-point range.

“We never did quite solve their post play, or Wiebe and Broughton,” Thorson said. “We never did make the adjustment on them totally. We hit some 3-pointers and that was a trade off, but they got us in the post play.”

The Tigers host Concordia Saturday at 4 p.m.

No. 9 DAKOTA WESLEYAN 79

MOUNT MARTY 76

Mount Marty (1-10, 0-3)

Dan Harmon 3-5 1-2 7; Jared Wall 5-10 0-0 10; Trey Krier 6-10 2-3 20; Weston Kusser 4-7 2-2 13; Bo Bruckner 1-3 0-0 3; Cody Ball 0-1 0-0 0; Stephen Klekas 1-3 0-0 3; Isaac Parson 0-0 0-0 0; Justin Peters 3-11 0-0 7; Spencer Yackley 1-2 4-4 6; Jeff Viereck 2-4 3-3 7. Totals 26-56 12-14 76.

Dakota Wesleyan (7-2, 2-1)

Brady Wiebe 10-12 5-7 25; Preston Broughton 9-11 6-9 24; Mitch Bain 5-11 2-2 14; Darrin Dorsey 3-14 2-4 8; Chase Walder 1-4 0-0 2; Justin Nelson 0-0 0-0 0; Bo LaCroix 0-0 1-2 1; Mark Mingo 0-0 0-0 0; Jacob Kneeland 2-4 0-0 5; Matt Dykstra 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-56 16-24 79.

Three-point goals-DWU 3-16 (Bain 2-6, Kneeland 1-3), MM 12-21 (Krier 6-9, Kusser 3-4, Bruckner 1-3, Klekas 1-3, Peters 1-1). Rebounds-DWU 31 (Broughton 10), MM 29 (Wall 6). Turnovers-DWU 11 MM 15. Assists-DWU 17 (Bain 7), MM 15 (Viereck 4). Steals-DWU 7 (Bain 4), MM 6. Blocks-DWU 5, MM 2.

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