Index of Sports Press Releases

Nov. 23, 2009

Tigers travel to Morningside after pair of thrillers at Dordt

MITCHELL, S.D. – The Dakota Wesleyan University basketball teams will be back on the road Tuesday for their second big Great Plains Athletic Conference test away from home in a four-day span when they travel to Sioux City, Iowa, for a doubleheader at Morningside College.

The Tigers will enter their second GPAC game of the season coming off very different ends of thrilling games in each teams’ conference opener Saturday at Dordt College. The Tiger women overcame an 11-point second-half deficit for a 67-66 win. The fourth-ranked men hit a 3-pointer to tie the game with four seconds left, only to see the Defenders answer with a long 3-pointer of their own at the buzzer to pull out a 76-73 win.

The Dakota Wesleyan women (3-4, 1-0) will try to prove their road mettle again against the top-ranked Mustangs, who are the defending national champions in NAIA Division II. Though Morningside is off to a 4-4 (1-0 GPAC) start this season as it replaces a lot of graduated stars from last year’s national title team, the Mustangs will still be incredibly tough on their home floor, and they have won 37 straight GPAC regular season games.

The Tigers will try to upset the nation’s No. 1 team on its home floor behind some of the confidence it generated during Saturday’s second half. Dordt led by 11 twice in the opening minutes of the second half, but DWU got a three-point play from Maggie Malloy and five points from Elizabeth Lamb for an 8-0 run to trim the lead to just three points.

Dakota Wesleyan still trailed by four with 2:39 to play, but Ashley Johnson got a layup and, after Dordt went 1-for-2 from the line, a game-tying 3-pointer. The Defenders misfired on the next possession, and Allison Johnson hit a go-ahead jumper with 32 seconds on the clock. Dordt had a chance to tie the game with nine seconds left, but again got just 1-of-2 free throws to go down and DWU held on for the win.

Malloy led DWU with 17 points and three steals in the win. Allison Johnson added 15 points and Ashley Johnson had 10 points. Lamb added 11 points off the bench and Angela Noteboom grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. The Tigers shot 50 percent from the floor (22-for-44) and from three (13-22) in the win.

The DWU men (4-2, 0-1) weren’t as lucky. After Michael Eekhoff hit 1-of-2 free throws, the Tigers worked the ball and Darrin Dorsey drained an open look from the top of the key to tie the game at 73-73 with just 4.6 seconds remaining. However, Dordt’s Logan Kingma weaved his way up the court and let a runner fly from two steps behind the 3-point line as the buzzer sounded. The shot banked in, and the stunned Tigers opened the GPAC season with a heartbreaking loss.

Brady Wiebe and Preston Broughton each put up a double-double for the DWU men. Wiebe had 19 points and 12 rebounds and Broughton added 19 points and 10 rebounds. Dorsey added 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the loss.

The Tigers will try to bounce back Tuesday at one of the toughest places to play in the GPAC. However, last season DWU defeated Morningside on its home court in an overtime thriller, and the Tigers also handed the Mustangs their first loss in 2007-08 when they were ranked No. 1in the nation.

Tuesday’s game is crucial to DWU’s conference title hopes, as the Tigers don’t want to open conference play with an 0-2 mark, and Morningside is the two-time defending GPAC champ. The Mustangs beat Midland Lutheran College, 75-67, Saturday to start out 1-0 in the conference. Morningside is 4-1 overall.

The women’s game will begin Tuesday at 6 p.m. with the men’s game scheduled to follow at 8 p.m. The games will both be broadcast by 105.9 FM KMIT, and on the station’s Web site at www.kmit.com. Morningside will offer live video streams and stats on its athletic Web site at: http://www.morningside.edu/mustangs/index.htm.