The Dawson Community College Buccaneers won for the 7th time in the past 8 games, beating the Dakota College at Bottineau Lumberjacks 97-75 on the road Monday night. The win boosts them to 3-1 in the conference with a crucial showdown with 4-0 Williston State College looming on Thursday night in Glendive.
Bottineau’s Dwaine Simmons started off the game with a dunk to give them the lead, but Devin Collins responded with a nifty post move inside, and then Jaron Masis followed it up on the next possession with a post move of his own to give the Bucs the lead. Cam’ron Dunfee nailed one from deep a couple minutes later to get the Bucs off to a good start. When Dawson’s substitutes went in they were down 12-9, but Beau Santistevan scored on a traditional 3-point play off an offensive rebound and assist from Kayden Hitt. On the next trip down, Man Man Baker helped Santistevan get another bucket and foul. Jackson Johnson answered back with a 3-pointer for Bottineau before Baker scored a three-point play of his own to give the Bucs an 18-15 lead. With nine minutes remaining in the opening half, the score was knotted at 25. Over the next 6 minutes Dawson went on a 17-4 run spurred on by a 3-pointer from Dunfee, a steal and dunk by Baker and a couple of three-pointers from CJ Nelson. With just a minute remaining Dawson built their biggest lead at 49-34 and it looked like they would cruise into halftime with a big lead, but Dakota College wasn’t ready to give in yet and they ended the half on an 8-0 run. Dawson clung to a 49-42 advantage at intermission. Dawson held a slight advantage in every statistical category in the first twenty minutes. They were led in scoring by Baker, Nelson and Dunfee.
In the second half, the Bucs really asserted themselves on the glass and took better care of the ball. Dakota College never got any closer than the eight point deficit at halftime. Dawson’s pressure and depth wore down the Lumberjacks who dropped to 0-4 in conference play. The visitors won the second half 48-33 to come out with the 22 point victory.
DCC outrebounded them 45-29 for the game, including 18 offensive rebounds which led to 20 second chance points. They also forced 17 turnovers, leading to 25 points. The bench of Dawson outscored Bottineau 52-14. The Bucs shot 49% from the field, 47% from the 3-point line and 84% from the charity stripe while only committing 12 turnovers.
In a very balanced effort, five Dawson players scored in double figures and two others finished with nine points. In total, 11 of the 12 players who suited up scored for Dawson. Baker led the way with 15, followed by Stephen’s 14 and Nelson’s 13. Collins and Sanstistevan had 10 points each while Dunfee and Jaron Masis had 9 apiece. Stephens led them in rebounding with 8. Ty’Riek Johnson from DCB finished with a game high 18 points.
Coach Joe Peterson commented, “I think we competed hard tonight. We missed a few easy buckets at close range, but I was very pleased with the play of our post players who scored a lot inside. That’s a dimension we need to get better at. We had our chance to put them away in the closing minute of the first half and we let them back into it, but we didn’t get discouraged and kept fighting for forty minutes. We started the league play with 3 out of 4 games on the road and have completed two of the three longest trips, so to be at 3-1 at this point is good. We are excited to be coming home for the next three games!”
Dawson is now 12-8 on the season and 3-1 in conference. They host Williston on Thursday night at 7:30 pm in the Toepke Center.
