DWU men beat No. 12 Doane for second time this year

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CRETE, Neb. — Dakota Wesleyan University has beaten ranked teams twice this season.

Both games were victories over Doane College.

Saturday afternoon, the Tigers defeated No. 12 Doane 87-83 in a Great Plains Athletic Conference men’s basketball game. On Dec. 15, DWU defeated Doane, then-ranked No. 8, 75-72 at the Corn Palace.

“Our guys have bought into the defensive game plan going into playing Doane,” DWU coach Shane Murphy said. “I thought our guys just came to play. We had great contributions on the offensive end from a bunch of players.”

Mike Lee had a team-high 24 points for DWU, Jalen Voss had 23 points and matched a season-high with 15 rebounds and Aireus Stephenson had 15 points.

“When you get three guys coming in and playing well, you certainly have a chance to play with anyone,” Murphy said. “Our role guys stepped in and played well too.”

The Tigers led for most of the first half and held a 31-30 advantage at the break.

Wesleyan’s second-half lead grew as large as 13 points with 11:55 to play, but Doane pulled within 64-62 about 3½ minutes later. But Wesleyan stayed on top for the remainder of the game to pick up its 12th win of the season and seventh conference victory.

DWU (12-12, 7-7 GPAC) shot 58 percent from the field in the second half after only 31 percent in the first half. The Tigers were 29-of-66 from the field in the game and had only nine turnovers. They also won the rebounding battle 47-38.

Carde Pennington and Danny Maman each had nine points for DWU, while Doane was led by Shavontae Samuels’ 31 points.

“We hope to continue to build off this with another tough week in the GPAC coming up,” Murphy said.

The Tigers travel to play Morningside for their next game, which is at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Sioux City, Iowa. Earlier this season, Morningside defeated Wesleyan 80-69 at the Corn Palace.

DAKOTA WESLEYAN 87,

No 12 DOANE 83

DWU (12-12, 7-7 GPAC)

Mike Lee 6-16 9-11 24, Kris Menning 0-2 0-0 0, Luke Bamberg 0-4 5-6 5, Aireus Stephenson 6-11 2-2 15, Jalen Voss 9-16 5-9 23, Carde Pennington 4-8 0-0 9, Bo LaCroix 0-0 0-0 0, Danny Maman 3-7 0-0 9, Stephen Lee 1-1 0-1 2, Jade Miller 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 29-66 21-29 87.

Doane (21-4, 11-4 GPAC)

Domonique Smith 5-13 4-6 18, Jens Scholl 5-9 1-2 12, Nick Reed 3-11 5-6 11, Shavontae Samuels 13-21 3-5 31, Connor Beranek 3-10 2-8 8, Austin Benson 1-3 0-0 3, Deonte Holt 0-1 0-0 0, David McDonald 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 30-68 13-19 83.

Halftime: DWU 31-30. 3-point goals: DWU 8-14 (Lee 3, Maman 3, Pennington, Stephenson), Doane 10-33 (Smith 4, Samuels 2, Beranek 2, Scholl, Benson). Rebounds: DWU 47 (Voss 15), Doane 38 (Beranek 10). Assists: DWU 15 (Lee 5, Bamberg 5), Doane 13 (Samuels 5). Turnovers: DWU 9, Doane 7. Total fouls: DWU 18, Doane 23. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None.

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