Davidson rises for an uncontested dunk.
After a rough start to 2019 with three straight losses, the DMACC men’s basketball team is rejuvenated with three conference wins to end the month. Starting the month nationally ranked #17, the Bears fell to #5 Kirkwood, #20 Iowa Lakes, and #15 NIACC by scores of 92-76, 85-80, and 106-100, respectively.
During this losing streak, Quinton Taylor said “We just have to play with more fire, we know how [conference opponents] play, we’ve broken down every part of their [gameplans]. We just need to play with a little more heart, too.”
After falling out of the national rankings with three straight losses, the Bears have recorded three straights wins; first at Ellsworth 73-63, and then in Fort Dodge against Iowa Central easily handling the Tritons 90-63, and home against Little Priest Tribal College week winning 92-75
In Iowa Falls against Ellsworth, DMACC had four starters in double digits led by Devonta Prince with 18. Prince shot 5 of 6 field goals, with a perfect 3 of 3 from deep and 5 for 5 free throws. Prince also had 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals in only 24 minutes battling foul trouble.
Other Bears in double figure scoring were DeShawn Davidson with 15 points, Tray Buchanan with 13, and Dyllan Robinson with 10. Ray Miller led the bench with 9 points
Last Saturday at Iowa Central, DMACC had 5 players with double digit scoring, three coming from the bench during a lopsided win over the Tritons.
Buchanan and Taylor led the Bears with 17 points each, with Buchanan filling the stat sheet including 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals.
Davidson scored 16, off the bench Miller had 13 points and Zach Lester contributed 10 in the win.
DMACC’s latest win came against the Warriors of Little Priest Tribal College in Boone, Thursday. The game was postponed from Wednesday due to the extreme cold.
Davidson led the Bears with 24 points in the win, along with 4 rebounds and 3 steals. Robinson contributed 19 points, and Buchanan chipped in 16 points with 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals and 2 assists.
Miller again led the DMACC bench with 12 points, and locked in on defense for 2 blocks and a steal.
Miller, as a reserve guard, is averaging 1.2 blocks per game this season, which is third best in the entire conference.
“I enjoy guarding [in the post], I like playing physical. They try to take advantage of my size, they just don’t know I can hang with them down there.” Miller said earlier this season.
The win over Little Priest Tribal marks the halfway point of DMACC’s conference schedule. Both the Bears and the Warriors entered the game even at 3-3 in conference play, knowing one team would leave with a losing conference record with only 7 games left.
“We knew it was a big game,” Davidson said about the matchup, “We knew we had to go get the ‘W’ . . . it’s very important moving forward in the conference.”
At this point in the season, all seven conference games left on DMACC’s schedule are rematches. Davidson said he sees this as a positive.
“We play Kirkwood and NIACC on the back end, so we have the games we played first, last.” Davidson said about remaining conference play, “So that could give us a good chance to get back on top of the conference.”
Kirkwood and NIACC are both ranked and defeated DMACC earlier this month. The Bears next game is at Morton College in Cicero, Illinois, then they return to Boone Monday to host Mount Mercy JV.
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