The Bears have notched two major back-to-back victories, expanding their December record to 3-0. Last Wednesday DMACC defeated 10-0 #2 Southwestern in their first conference matchup by a score of 78-63. The Bears followed that with a 83-73 win over 11-1 Southeastern Monday evening, in which the Bears never surrendered the lead.
An unsportsmanlike outburst from Spartans head coach Blake Peterson might have cost his team the game, with 2:59 to go in a close game, Peterson verbally abused one of the referees, saying he had “been garbage all night”, leading to a technical foul and crucial free throws by DMACC’s Vinny Tarello.
DMACC breaks a 7 game losing streak versus the juggernaut Southwestern Spartans, the Bears last win coming on Valentine’s Day, 2015. Coach Bowler said it felt good to get the first conference victory of the year in the team’s first conference game.
Robinson rises for an alley-oop over Southeastern
“We’ve played some tough games with [Southwestern] . . . they’ve been a great team, they’ve had some good players.”
DMACC was led by sophomore Tray Buchanan with 17 points. Buchanan contributed 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals in 32 minutes before fouling out of the game.
Back-to-back ICCAC Player of the Week Deshawn Davidson was held to only 24 minutes of play also due to foul trouble, he accrued 15 points with 4 rebounds and 4 assists in that time.
Sophomore Dyllan Robinson worked in the paint all game, recording a strong double-double of 12 points and 16 rebounds on 50% shooting from the field. Robinson is averaging 9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks over the past 5 games, anchoring the post for the Bears.
Other Bears involved in the victory were sophomore Devonta Prince (4 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals), freshman Vinny Tarello (14 points, 3 rebounds), sophomore Ray Miller (4 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks), sophomore Quinton Taylor (4 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal), and freshman Zach Lester led DMACC with 3 steals to go with his 6 points and 3 rebounds.
As a sophomore who lost 3 games against Southwestern last year, Davidson talked about the importance of this win, saying “This is a big win, big statement for us. We dropped the ball in a few games[earlier this season]- we knew we needed to win this one, protect the crib . . . today we put together a [good] 40 minutes.”
DMACC held Southwestern to 20 points below their season average. The Bears have 5 players of the conference top 12 in blocks per game, and 2 players in the top 7 in steals.
Prince is on those lists of blocks and steals per game, and he spoke on what DMACC does to create such a dominant defense, saying “We’re long, we’re athletic, we have people who can jump and get blocks and make plays [defensively].”
Coach Bowler added to those comments, saying “Today was the first time we saw some role players step up . . . some of our go-to guys sat out longer, the other guys filled those roles and made some plays for us.”
The Bears protected the home court again in the following game against the Southeastern Blackhawks on Monday, never allowing the visitors to take the lead in the 87-75 victory.
Buchanan again led the Bears in scoring, posting a career-high 35 points and 6 steals on 9-12 shooting with 6-8 from
Buchanan gives an icy stare after making a 4-point play
deep and 11-12 free throws made. Buchanan also tallied 8 rebounds during his 36 minutes of play.
Buchanan had gone 0-9 from 3 in the past two games, but didn’t let that keep him from making a 3-point shot on his first shot attempt of the night.
“That’s just a part of the game, making and missing shots. I stayed confident in what I know I can do, teammates got
me in position to score, it was a solid win for [the team].”
Other Bears to score against Southeastern were Taylor (10 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist), Tarello (8 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists), Robinson (6 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block), Miller (6 points), Lester (4 points), and Prince (1 point, 4 rebounds, 1 assist).
“These last two wins have been the better teams we’ve seen on our schedule, it’s good that we got the wins, now we got to finish these last two games strong.” Buchanan said about the team going into winter break.
The Bears finish the 2018 calendar year with a road trip to Central, Nebraska Community College before hosting Quakerdale Prep in Boone next Tuesday.
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