Index of Sports Press Releases

Mar. 3, 2008

DWU men lose in GPAC semifinals
By Matt Higgins • The Daily Republic

Dakota Wesleyan forward Ike Muoneke tries to put a post move on Northwestern’s Chad Schuiteman during the first half of Saturday’s GPAC tournament semifinal game at the Bultman Center in Orange City, Iowa. (Matt Higgins/Republic)

Apparently the third time isn’t a charm. Dakota Wesleyan University was knocked out of the Great Plains Athletics Conference men’s basketball tournament Saturday when Northwestern College beat the Tigers for the third time this season, 86-78. DWU was the No. 3 seed while the Red Raiders were seeded second.

This time around, the 16th-ranked Tigers’ (24-8) prolific offense could never get going for an extended stretch while No. 7 Northwestern (26-4) received big shots up and down the lineup to advance to the GPAC championship game.

“We just didn’t play well enough offensively,” said DWU head coach John Hemenway. “We did not play well enough over the course of 40 minutes to beat these guys. You can’t come over here and shoot 40 percent and miss 11 free throws and have a good chance to beat them.”

The top seed, Morningside College, was upset by fifth-seeded Briar Cliff Saturday, 69-66, so Northwestern will host the Chargers in Tuesday’s title game.

The top two scoring teams in the GPAC didn’t look like their fast-paced selves for much of the first half. More than 10 minutes into the game, DWU point guard Andrew Lasche found Preston Broughton for an alley-oop slam dunk, and the Tigers led the low-scoring game, 15-12.

The rest of the half felt like it was playing on a loop. Northwestern would go a run to take a lead, DWU would fight to tie the score or take a one-point lead, then the Red Raiders would regain control.

Northwestern responded with a 9-0 run to take a six-point lead, 21-15. Broughton answered with five-straight points, Scott Nelson drove in for a layup and Brady Wiebe hit a pair of free throws to put the Tigers back on top, 24-23.

The Red Raiders quickly answered with an 8-0 run, but DWU rallied to tie the game at 31-31. Northwestern ended the half with a Kale Wiertzema jumper and a Chad Schuiteman three-point play to take a 36-31 lead into the locker room.

“I thought in the first half we played fairly well defensively,” Hemenway said. “You have to hope they miss some shots. You can’t cover these guys the entire 40 minutes and shut them down. It’s not realistic.”

DWU was dismal on offense in the first 20 minutes. The Tigers shot 30 percent (9-for-30) from the floor, 12.5 percent (1-for-8) from three-point land and 63.2 percent (12-of-19) from the free throw line.

“You have to get in a rhythm and it definitely helps when you have guys knock down shots,” Nelson said. “We never really got into that. We got frustrated right off the start. It’s a tough place to shoot. I’ve never felt comfortable shooting here and we’ve struggled here before. Maybe there’s something going on in our heads.”

Nelson, Broughton and Wiebe keyed a quick start after halftime for DWU. Nelson got to the rim for a pair of layups, Broughton muscled inside for a basket and Wiebe made a layup and 3-of-4 from the line to pull even with the Red Raiders four minutes in, 42-42.

However, that was the closest the Tigers would come. Mark DeYounge hit a three and Schuiteman added a jumper to re-take a five-point lead. Nelson answered with a three-pointer, but Northwestern’s Andrew Stimson matched with a three on the other end.

That was one of the prevailing themes the rest of the way — the Red Raiders were always able to answer a big shot by DWU. The other theme was even when the Tigers were able to get stops, they just couldn’t get their shots to fall consistently enough to go on a run.

Northwestern built an 11-point lead, its largest of the game, but Chase Walder hit a three for the Tigers and Broughton scored on a drive, but Ben Brown hit his second three-pointer in a two-minute stretch to halt the run.

“You always want to try to shut down (Curt) Schilling and Schuiteman, but when those other guys are knocking down shots it’s extremely tough,” Nelson said. “You have to have a hand up on everybody.”

The Red Raiders took care of business from the free-throw line the rest of the way, and even a late hot streak from Colby Fitzgerald (11 points in the last 2:22) wasn’t nearly enough to make up for game-long offensive woes.

Broughton led the Tigers with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Nelson had his best game in recent memory with 17 points and Fitzgerald finished with 16 points. Wiebe added 11 points and five rebounds and Lasche dished out six assists.

“Scott had a great game,” Hemenway said. “He really gave us a nice lift. Preston has his usual double-double there. We just needed more contributions from everybody.”

Northwestern’s two senior stars were good. Schuiteman led the way with 22 points and 13 rebounds and Curt Schilling scored 17 points in the win. However, it was the Red Raiders’ balance that made the difference — Kale Wiertzema and Stimson each scored 11 and Brown added 10.

“They’re a great offensive team — we knew that coming in,” Hemenway said. “They were just a little bit better today. They had a nice balanced effort.”

Now the Tigers wait. The 32-team field for the NAIA Division II national tournament will be announced late Tuesday with the pairings to follow on Wednesday. DWU looks to be a lock with its No. 16 rating.

“We’ve had a good year,” Hemenway said. “We’ve won 24 games. I have great kids. We have a lot to be proud of. We just want to regroup and hopefully get playing well when we go down to Missouri.”

The national tournament begins on March 12, so the Tigers will have 10 or 11 days between games. Hemenway said he’ll give his team a few days off, then they’ll scrimmage and go hard in practices leading up to the tournament to try and stay sharp.

“It will be nice to take a little break away from everything and come back ready to go,” Nelson said. “We’ll take a little break and still work out, get in the gym some and stay sharp.”