(DCC Athletics release)
GLENDIVE – The Dawson Community College Buccaneers competed hard for most of the night, but fell to a strong Sheridan College team on Saturday night in the Toepke Center at DCC. The Bucs cut the deficit to single digits with 15 minutes to go in the game on a dunk by Jaron Masis with 14 minutes to go. The Generals answered back with a 3-pointer from Josh Bagley. The home team never got it within single digits the rest of the way as Sheridan continued to build on their lead and eventually stretched it to the largest of the game at the final buzzer with a 94-60 advantage.
Sheridan got out of the gates quickly in the opening half with an 11-0 run on a balanced attack inside and out to take control 16-4. DCC put up a fight and countered with a 15-7 run boosted by a 3-pointer from Hunter McKinney and another one from Beau Sanstistevan though the visitors closed the half on a 15-4 run to lead 38-23 at intermission.
Both teams were playing on the 2nd night of back-to-back games. Sheridan shot 53% from the field and 42% from the 3-point line but only connected on 19-34 from the free throw line. Their biggest advantage came on the boards where they outrebounded Dawson 51-35.
Dawson was led in scoring by Jaron Masis who had 12 points and 6 rebounds. Camron Dunfee contributed 11 points and six other Bucs had 5 points or more in a balanced attack. AJ Bramah led the Generals with 20 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists. Javary Christmas added 17 points and Lasse Gummerus had 12 points.
DCC Coach Joe Peterson was proud of the effort, “I thought we competed much better today. It was great to see a couple of our inside guys really step up and compete against high level competition. Sheridan is as good of a team as we will face all year and we frustrated them a bit and hung around until late in the 2nd half. If we can keep working hard and keep improving I think we can be a good team in January and February.”
The men dropped another close one Friday night losing 105-100 at Gillette College. DCC trailed by 15 points with 12:41 remaining, but stayed within striking distance for most of the night. Spearheaded by the scoring of Marcus Stephens, the young Bucs pulled within two points of the perennial powerhouse from Gillette. Every time in the last minute when Dawson would make it a one possession game, Gillette would keep them at bay by making free throws.
Two costly lane violations took away two points from Dawson on the free throw line in the closing minutes and another turnover made it challenging to complete the comeback. The Pronghorns had a big advantage on the line, converting 20-25 free throws in the second half and 31-41 for the game, Dawson only shot 24 free throws in the game and made 75% of those. The other big advantage came in forcing turnovers where Gillette led 23-11 and they scored 29 points off those turnovers. Even though Dawson won the battle of the boards 42-36, Gillette converted 18 second chance points to the Dawson’s 8. There were a lot of positives for the Bucs. DCC shot 52% from the field, 46% from the three-point line and 75% from the free throw line. It was their best shooting night of the young season. They also scored 72 points off the bench compared to Gillette’s 22.
In the first half, it looked like Dawson might take control when they built a 7 point lead just seven minutes into the game due in large part to good three-point shooting. Gillette turned up the pressure though and began forcing turnovers and converting them on the other end. The home team converted 14 turnovers into 22 points in the opening half to go into the locker room up by twelve points at 57-45. Dawson kept fighting and outscored Gillette 55-48 in the second half, but in the end they couldn’t finish the comeback.
The Buccaneers had 4 players in double figures and were led in scoring by Marcus Stephens with 21 points and 5 rebounds. Man Man Baker chipped in 15 points and 6 assists while CJ Nelson had 14 points. Beau Santistevan had a solid contribution with 13 points and 5 rebounds.
Gillette’s leading scorer was Kaileb Walton-Blanden with 24 points to go along with 6 assists. Javon Westcarth had a workmanlike 22 points and 10 rebounds and Akhile Bradley had 21 points on efficient 4-6 shooting from behind the 3 point line. Dreshawn Allen and Mason Archambault rounded out the Gillette players in double figures scoring 20 points and 17 points respectively.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Bucs as they head back on the road next weekend to face Gillette College and Colorado Northwestern in the Pronghorn Classic in Gillette.
