Tigers come back, win in double OT

The Dakota Wesleyan University Tigers roared back from a big deficit late in regulation Saturday to force overtime and went on to defeat the Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves 103-97 in the second overtime.

Things looked dire for DWU with 3:52 to play in regulation as the Tigers were down 73-59. But a three-point shot from Kris Menning, a basket and two free throws each from Aireus Stephenson and Jalen Voss cut the NWU advantage to 73-68.

With a tip in from Tim Schweitzer with 1:31 to play, the Prairie Wolves stretched its lead to 75-68.

The Tigers closed out the scoring with a 3-pointer, two free throws from Carde Pennington and a pair of free throws from Voss to send the game into the first extra stanza.

“We finally started to play with a sense of ur-gency that we want to see more out of our guys through the course of the whole game,” said DWU coach Shane Murphy of his team’s comeback. “(NWU) also helped us with a couple of turnovers, but we had to capitalize on those turnovers with hot shooting.”

DWU looked like it might win in the first overtime as the Tigers led 81-77 with two minutes left on the clock. But with DWU holding an 82-80 lead, NWU’s Trent Scheitel made a basket and was fouled with 12 seconds left to play. Scheitel missed the free throw and the contest was tied at 82, sending the game into the second overtime.

The Tigers took control of the game early in overtime —going on an 11-2 run and a 93-84 lead.

DWU held off the Prairie Wolves with free throw shooting, going 12-of-14 in overtime.

Stephenson, a 6-foot-1 senior, scored 10 of his game-high 29 points in the second overtime and was happy about his perfor-mance.

“I finally had a good game for my team,” Stephenson said. “We had faith and we played with some heart. We saw that people were starting to leave, but we stuck to-gether as a team and said it’s not over.”

Murphy agreed with his player.

“We talked about playing downhill a little bit more and that means on our toes and taking it to the other team, and he did a nice job of that,” Murphy said. “When they backed off, he hit some threes at a good rate and he knocked down some big free throws down the stretch.”

Pennington finished with 18 points, Voss had 17 points, 13 rebounds and four steals, Menning recorded 16 points and Luke Bamberg added 11 rebounds.

DWU (9-9, 4-5 GPAC) was 31-of-69 for 45 percent from the field and 32-of-39 from the free-throw line for 82 percent. The Tigers outrebounded the Prairie Wolves 50-38 and commit-ted 12 turnovers.

Eric Jackson led NWU with 21 points, Trevor Johnson followed with 20 points, Jonah Bradley added 14 points and Trey Bardsley scored 10 points.

The Prairie Wolves (8-6, 3-6) were 37-of-79 from the floor for 47 percent and 10-of-18 for 56 percent from the free throw line. NWU turned the ball over 12 times.

DWU plays Northwestern at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Orange City, Iowa.

DWU 103,

NWU 97 2OT

DWU (9-9, 4-5)

Mike Lee 1-7 6-6 8; Kris Menning 5-5 3-4 16; Luke Bamberg 3-7 2-5 8; Aireus Stephenson 7-12 12-15 29; Jalen Voss 6-14 5-5 17; Carde Pennington 6-12 4-4 18; Bo LaCroix 0-4 4-4 4; Danny Maman 3-8 0-0 7; Jade Miler 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 31-69 32-39 103.

NWU (8-6, 3-6)

Trevor Johnson 9-15 2-6 20; Jonah Bradley 3-10 5-6 14; Byron Thompson 2-5 2-2 7; Eric Jackson 7-18 0-0 21; Tim Schweitzer 3-6 0-0 6; Trey Bardsley 4-8 0-0 10; Andrew Mitteis 2-5 0-1 4; Trent Scheitel 4-8 0-1 8; Sass Karemae 3-4 1-2 7. Totals: 37-79 10-18 97.

Halftime score NWU 42-DWU 37. 3 Point goals DWU 9-17 (Menning 3, Stephenson 3, Pennington 2, Maman 1) NWU (Bradley 3, Thompson 1, Jackson 7, Bardsley 2) Rebounds DWU 50 (Voss 13, Bamberg 11), NWU 38; Turnovers, DWU 12, NWU 12; Assists, DWU 16 (Lee 4, Bamberg 7) NWU 23; Total fouls, DWU 19, NWU 28; Fouled out, DWU Bamberg, Voss, NWU Bradley, Schweitzer ; Technical fouls, None.

Tags: sports, updates, dwu, basketball