Forest City, Iowa – The Dakota Wesleyan men’s basketball finished the 2023 portion of their schedule this afternoon with a win over Waldorf University 89-80. The Tigers grabbed their first road game win of the 2023-24 season led by Jakob Dobney as he scored a season high 29 points, one point shy of his career high. Four DWU players scored at least 12 points as the offense shot an efficient 49% from the floor and made 21 of their 25 free throws.
Highlighted Player – Jakob Dobney 29 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists
Stat Leaders:
Points – Jakob Dobney (29)
Assists – Randy Rosenquist Jr. (3)
Rebounds – Samuel Aslesen (8)
Blocks – Samuel Aslesen (1)
Recap – The Tigers traveled to Forest City, Iowa for the last non-conference game of the 2023 calendar year and looked to get their first road win of the season. DWU jumped out to a hot start in the opening minutes, going up by as many as six points. Jakob Dobney spearheaded the Tigers offense, making three of his first five shots before the 14-minute mark. Dobney was a flamethrower throughout the first half, as he scored 21 points in the first half. Dobney and company attacked the rim, taking advantage of their speed over the Warriors. As Dobney started to pile up points, he would force double teams and found teammates Blaze Lubbers and Samuel Aslesen open for easy layups. Dakota Wesleyan had a 14-point lead at one point and held onto a double-digit lead for the majority of the first half. The Tigers scored most of their points in the paint and outrebounded the Warriors 17-12 in the first half and went into the break with a 48-39 lead.
The Warriors started to contain Dobney as he only scored two points through the first five minutes of the second half to bump their lead back out to nine. It wasn’t long after that the Warriors would go on a run, outscoring DWU 22-12 and taking the lead with 12:18 remaining on the clock. The Tigers had to look elsewhere for scores and found that in three freshmen off the bench. Kaden Year, Oliver Vincent, and Ethan Determan checked in and combined for seven points in the second half and gave the offense a boost. The Tigers regained the lead thanks to a pair of Kallan Herman free throws before Aslesen nailed a jumper to grab a three-point lead back. Lubbers came to life late in the second half, scoring three tough buckets in the paint, going to his left and right with sky hooks as he got the mismatches he wanted. With less than four minutes remaining, Herman would again swish his third and fourth free throws of the game. Herman was perfect from the free throw line and made 4-5 from the field to score his 12 points. From this point, the Tigers would make 7 of 7 free throws plus Lubbers tough and-one bucket to ice the game, 89-80. The Tigers pulled down 33 total rebounds and forced seven Warrior turnovers. The Tigers scored 34 points in the paint and added an additional 21 points from the charity stripe as they grabbed their first road win of the season.
Up Next for the Tigers –
Dakota Wesleyan men’s basketball team will take a break over the holiday season and will be back at home on January 3rd to kick off the new year in a matchup against Viterbo University.