'Day 'n' Night' Dickinson State splits weekend games at home
Jan. 18—DICKINSON — Starting the back-to-back weekend game with a Friday evening blowout win against Waldorf, led a high-spirited DSU team dumb-struck against Viterbo Saturday afternoon, in Scott Gymnasium.
On a season high, three-game winning streak, Dickinson State Blue Hawks' (3-2, 7-11) home crowd would watch it come to an end in a narrowly close 78-73 defeat to the V-Hawks.
DSU defeat Waldorf 72-38
The Blue Hawks showed off their capabilities against Waldorf College (1-4, 5-12), shooting over 55 % from the field. The Warriors are a lower standing team in the North Star Athletic Association (NSAA) conference and had difficulty keeping up with DSU's shooters, who shot 43.5 % from beyond the arc.
In the one-sided affair, DSU would lead in nearly all categories of statistics, from a significant free-throw average (83.3 % — 44.4 %), to a more narrow rebound tally (34-27). However, the Warriors stuck close to the Blue Hawks in turnovers, only relinquishing 14 over the DSU's 12.
Early in the game, the two sides tied three times and Waldorf held a momentary lead on a four-point run, making it 15-13. Soon after, the Blue Hawks would make a push well past the Warriors to end the first half 37-25.
DSU would continue to heat up in the second half, scoring 43 points and adding clips to the highlight reel with an alley-oop.
John Evans was the game's point and rebound leader with 19 and eight.
The 6'9" junior forward Josiah Haaland had eight points around the rim and collected four rebounds. Post players, sophomore Gus Wright and junior Christian Murphy, would each notch four boards each and 14 points.
As a team, they ended the game with 18 assists, Murphy leading with five.
DSU head coach Derek Selvig was happy to see his team taking care of the ball in conference play after their rigorous preseason of facing ranked teams.
"When it comes to conferences, every game is a battle, but we are prepared," Selvig said. "We play all good teams in the preseason and it shows."
Viterbo defeat DSU 78-73
From an exceptional performance one day, to an absent-minded defeat the next, mental errors would be the large contributing factor to Dickinson State's defeat to the NSAA reigning champions V-Hawks (4-1, 10-8).
A pocketful of leads in the first half would never amount to much for the Blue Hawks, who kept falling into bad habits and never got going with a 39 field goal percentage.
"We were not very smart today," Selvig said. "It is kind of night 'n' day from yesterday. Just a lot of mental mistakes, not following the game plan , and just not getting them focused.
Falling out rhythm the Blue Hawks made great strides in the second half, but would fall out rhythm too many times, flirty with a 10-point margin.
Christian Murphy set a season best with 16 points, leading his team and was two rebounds away from a double-double notching eight. DSU had four other players finish in double digits,
John Evans had 12 points and five assists. Gus Wright would also have 12 points, followed by Kose Egbule with 11 and Trey Hladky with 10.
Moving on from the defeat, DSU will be looking to get back on the winning path. They will be back on the road for more NSAA back-to-back weekend play, facing Mayville State and Presentation college, starting Friday, Jan. 20th.
"I am a big believer that coaches lose games and players win games and that one falls on us. We just didn't have our guys ready to go and mentally we just didn't have.
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Josiah Haaland (55) calls for a pass in the paint.
Josiah C. Cuellar / The Dickinson Press
