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| SUMMIT PHOTO BY CHRIS TODD
Waldorf senior Quentin Vaughn drives to the basket in the Warriors’ win over St. Ambrose Saturday. |
Warriors finish their way to three victories
Waldorf men improve to 4-2 in the MCC
By Chris Todd
Of the Summit
FOREST CITY - Peaks and valleys are a part of any college basketball team's season, and how individual teams deal with them often determines whether their campaigns are successful or not.
The Waldorf men's basketball team (11-7, 4-2) lost a tough, overtime conference game at home to Iowa Wesleyan Jan. 12, but showed some grit last week, beating conference opponent Grand View 79-69 on the road and coming back with a home conference win over St. Ambrose University last Saturday in Forest City.
There were similarities in both crucial conference wins, according to WC men's basketball coach Chad Brown.
“We executed well on the offensive end in both games and I thought a real key was finishing off teams in the second half,” he said. “We've never won at Grand View so that was a nice road win for us. We put ourselves in a hole early, but hung in there and executed well in the second half.”
Grand View bolted to an 11-2 lead but had to sink a three at the first half buzzer to lead by eight at 34-26 at halftime.
“They were scoring at a fast pace early but we dug in and started to play better defense,” Brown said. “We were still fortunate to give up just 34 points in the first half given their quick start.”
The Warriors went on a 21-13 run over the first seven minutes, five seconds of the second half to tie the game at 47. They took the lead for good with 12:34 left on a layup by Devin Banks to make it 49-47. Waldorf went on another run over the next five minutes to take a 60-52 lead with 7:34 left.
“Once we extended the lead, we held onto it and didn't let them get close again,” Brown added.
The Warriors were on fire from the field in the second half, hitting 19 of 34 field goal attempts for 55 percent. They held Grand View to just 35 percent shooting from the field.
“We also had just ten turnovers for the whole game and six of those were in the first half,” Brown said. “We took good care of the ball and shot free throws well down the stretch.”
Balanced scoring was also a key, as four players reached double figures. Cedric Davis led the way with 18 points while Evan Clasen added 15, Jawaun Bowman 11 and Banks 10. They also forced 20 Grand View turnovers and hit 17 of 24 free throws to 12 of 15 for Grand View.
It was more of the same against Ambrose University last Saturday in Forest City. Waldorf led just 37-33 at halftime, but outscored Ambrose 49-37 in the second half to pull away.
“We started out in a man-to-man defense, then went to a zone, which they really struggled with,” Brown added. “Offensively, we spread the ball out to different people and had some nice balanced scoring again.”
Banks got the Warriors off on the right foot in the second half with a three to start the period, and Waldorf started the half with a 9-5 run for a 46-38 lead with 17:35 left.
With 12:21 remaining, St. Ambrose was still within seven points at 55-48, but the Warriors went on a decisive run, outscoring SA 14-6 over the next four-plus minutes for a 69-54 advantage with eight minutes left.
Once again, Waldorf shot the ball well, hitting 48.6 of its field goal attempts and committing 15 turnovers while forcing 24 and holding SA to 43 percent shooting.
Clasen and Bowman each led the way with 18 points while Banks added 11and three more players finished with eight points each.
With the two conference wins, the Warriors enter this week's action 4-2 in Midwest Conference action .
They are in second place in the league standings a game ahead of Clarke College and two games behind unbeaten William Penn.
On Sunday, meanwhile, Waldorf routed Providence College at home 89-58. They led 45-15 at the half and outscored Providence 44-43 in the second half for the final margin.
Dashad Isumu led the Warriors with a game-high 15 points while Bowman also hit double figures with 11 points,. Clasen, Banks and Davis each added eight points.
Story created Jan 22, 2008 - 12:27:54 CST.
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