The Dawson Community College Buccaneers defeated the visiting Williston State College Tetons 90-67 in Glendive Thursday night. Coupled with Bismarck State’s win over North Dakota State College of Science, Dawson clinched the regular season Mon-Dak Conference title. They are currently 11-0 in conference with three games to go. There is a two-way tie for second place at 8-3. Dawson has won twelve games in a row since the start of the new year.
The first half against Williston was a back and forth affair with seven lead changes. The Bucs found themselves down 1 with four minutes to go in the opening half, but outscored the Tetons 20-8 to go into halftime with a 45-34 lead. In that run, reigning Mon-Dak Player of the Week, Camron Dunfee, scored eight points.
Dawson came out of half-time to score the first 11 points and take a commanding 21 point lead. Williston didn’t score until Shae Linton-Brown finally connected on a 3-pointer five minutes into the second half. The Tetons never got closer than that the rest of the way.
Williston out-shot Dawson from the 3 point line 52% to 32% and from the free throw line 71% to 67%, but Dawson dominated the boards 42-29 and especially on the offensive boards 15-5. The Bucs scored 25 points off of 19 Teton turnovers and their bench outscored them 43-13.
Brown finished with 29 points for Williston. Dunfee led Dawson with 20 points on an efficient 7-12 shooting from the field. Beau Santistevan had a big game with 14 points and 9 rebounds while Man Man Baker scored 10 points, had 5 rebounds and dished out 5 assists.
Bucs Coach Joe Peterson said, “It feels a little strange that we clinched the regular season title tonight. In our minds we have been focused on winning one more after tonight. We weren’t expecting other contenders to lose. It’s pretty exciting for these young men. They have put in a lot of work since they arrived to campus. They have been so focused and determined all through last year and over the summer and throughout this season. We have focused on getting better every day and that focus won’t change after this. We still have a lot of areas we need to get better in and we have two weeks until the Region Tournament begins.”
Dawson will travel to Dakota College Bottineau for a match-up on Sunday before returning home next Thursday for a battle with Miles Community College.
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