Mount Marty downs Dakota Wesleyan men on game-winning shot in final second
Jan. 15—MITCHELL — Six seconds ended up being too much time to leave on the clock.
After trailing for much of the last eight minutes, a Koln Oppold layup brought DWU back into a tie with Mount Marty, but that left just enough time for a dramatic reply.
On the ensuing play, MMU's Cole Bowen took the inbounds pass the length of the court and flipped in a floater from inside the lane with 0.6 showing on the game clock, lifting the Lancers to an 81-79 win over the Tigers in Great Plains Athletic Conference play on Sunday afternoon at the Corn Palace.
"We were man-to-man. They dribbled down to a spot and made a good shot; it was contested, and it went in," said DWU head coach Matt Wilber. "There's not much more there. They had two players, it was going to go to one of them."
As the final score points to, there wasn't much of an offensive shortage in the back-and-forth affair.
Both sides connected on 11 of their first 22 field goal attempts. For DWU (9-9, 5-5 GPAC), most of the damage was done from distance, as the Tigers started 9 of 13 from behind the 3-point line. But for all the Tigers' sharpshooting, the Lancers (8-12, 4-8 GPAC) were never far behind.
As DWU experienced a lull, closing the half 1 of 6 from the field and 0 of 4 from 3-point range, a six-point lead was chipped down until Bowen tossed in a shot from half court at the halftime horn, giving the visitors a 44-41 edge at the break.
"We just couldn't guard them defensively," Wilber said. "We gave up 44 points in the first half at home. That's just a bad number."
DWU reclaimed a lead less than 3 1/2 minutes into the second half and held onto it until MMU pushed back in front with under eight minutes to play. The Lancers expanded the advantage to eight points (76-68) — the largest lead by either side all afternoon — with 3:24 remaining before the Tigers charged back and looked poised to force overtime.
"Credit our guys for competing and doing that, but defensively, it was really tough for us," Wilber said.
Mount Marty also won the first matchup between the two schools this season, 71-65, on Nov. 22, in Yankton, marking the first season since 2019-20 that the Lancers swept the regular-season meetings with the Tigers.
As Bowen posted 23 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals, MMU's Tash Lunday led all scorers with 30 points to go with a team-high eight rebounds and two steals. Will Turner chipped in nine points and three rebounds off the bench, but no other Lancer finished with more than five points.
"They made a lot of shots," Wilber said. "Cole Bowen and Tash Lunday played really well, scored 53 of their points, just those two guys."
On the other side, the DWU starters accounted for all 79 points, as all five reached double figures. Oppold's 25 points and nine rebounds paced the Tigers in both categories, as Kallan Herman knocked in five of DWU's 13 3-pointers and finished with 16 points. Jakob Dobney (15), Blaze Lubbers (13) and Diang Gatluak (10) rounded out the scoring contributions, with Gatluak also adding eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.
DWU is on the road at Hastings College on Friday, Jan. 20, for the first of four road dates in the next five games.
