Yankton, S.D. – The Dakota Wesleyan men’s basketball team handled business on the road, as they defeated the Mount Marty University Lancers 77-63. Samuel Aslesen set a new career-high 22 points and Blaze Lubbers tied his career-high in rebounds with 13. DWU hit 10 three points in the game and shot 46% from the field. The Tigers out rebounded MMU 29-25 and forced more turnovers as they completed the season sweep over the Lancers.
Highlighted Player – Samuel Aslesen 22 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block
Stat Leaders:
Points – Samuel Aslesen (22)
Assists – Randy Rosenquist Jr. (4)
Rebounds – Blaze Lubbers (13)
Blocks – Samuel Aslesen (1)
Recap – The Tigers opened the contest on a cold streak, getting their first bucket from Samuel Aslesen after almost four minutes ran off the clock. DWU found themselves trailing by seven points early after going 0 of 6 from three-point range and the Lancers had the momentum. Ethan Determan and Diang Gatluak would enter the contest for the Tigers, and they brought the offensive spark. Determine got open on the right wing and drilled the first three pointer for the Tigers. Gatluak got in on the three-point action as he swished his first three-point attempt and cut the Mount Marty University lead to just one possession. The three-point barrage wasn’t going to stop now that the Tigers got the lid off of the basket. Aslesen followed with a triple of his own and Diang drilled another one to give DWU a three-point lead. After going 0-6 to open the game, DWU made their next seven three-point attempts to go up 24-22 with six minutes remaining. After going 7 of 8 from three, the Tigers switched it up and started to attack the rim more, Jakob Dobney leading the charging making a layup and drawing fouls against the Lancers. In the closing seconds of the first half the Lancers grabbed a one-point lead over the Tigers but Randy Rosenquist Jr. had something to say about that. As Rosenquist dribbled out the remaining seconds to guarantee a lost shot, he got a screen from Aslesen and Rosenquist drove the rim and went up and under to grab the lead back for the Tigers as the two teams went into the half time break, DWU up 36-35.
As the two teams came out, the Lancers scored a quick pair of layups to retake a three-point lead, but wouldn’t you know, the Tigers hit a three to tie it up. Kallan Herman hit that three to get DWU rolling in the second half, as Rosenquist and Aslesen would score some easy fast break buckets before the Lancers would call a timeout. MMU would come out and score out of the timeout to make it a one-point deficit. The Tiger offense would come down and look to set up Aslesen for a bucket with a down screen, he flashed to the wing and drove to the rack to make the layup and get the foul call against the Lancers. Both teams would go into a scoreless streak for about two minutes as both teams stepped up their defense. Rosenquist drove to the rack but was blocked and Aslesen came in to get the offensive board and was fouled on his layup attempt. Aslesen would put away both charity stripe attempts and put DWU back up by three with 11:52 left on the clock. The Tigers offense pushed the pace and would get the ball up the floor to score some layups, getting back out to their biggest lead of the game so far, seven points, to make MMU take a full timeout. Aslesen, the scoring leader in the game, drilled another three-point bucket to give the Tigers an 11-point lead but the Lancers would answer with a triple of their own. After a slow first half, Jakob Dobney came to life. Dobney attacked the center of the paint and forced the foul. As he went to shoot his single bonus free throws, he missed the first, got the offensive rebound, and scored an easy layup. DWU started to pull away, after a Rosenquist layup stretched the lead out to 12 and MMU called yet another timeout with less than four minutes remaining. MMU started to rush their shots and were unable to claw into the Tigers lead. DWU would put the Lancers away at the free throw line in the closing minute of play and came out with the win, 77-63. Aslesen set a new career high, 22 points, to help lead the Tigers to a big conference win.
Up Next for the Tigers – The Tigers will be back at home in the Corn Palace on January 24th as they take on the No. 13 Red Raiders of Northwestern. Tipoff is set for 7:45 p.m.