Offense comes alive as Men's Basketball does in Dominican, 83-66
| Published: 02/02/2013 |
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MILWAUKEE — With MSOE's 2002-03 Lake Michigan Conference Champion and NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament team in attendance, the current Raiders played the same title-worthy basketball the alumni once did, wowing a sizable Kern Center crowd with an 83-66 win over Dominican in Northern Athletic Conference men's basketball action Saturday.
After shooting just 30.3 percent through a three-game losing streak coming in, MSOE (14-8, 8-5) busted out offensively, scoring its most points since an 86-72 victory at Concordia University Wisconsin on Feb. 5, 2011. Improved shooting played a huge role, as the Raiders upped the tempo, drove the basket more and scored nearly twice as often as during the skid, raising their shooting percentage to an impressive 58.5 in the win.
The game was fairly even until three-pointers by John Cording (Jr./Menomonee Falls, Wis./BM) and Victor Bande (Sr./Madrid, Spain/IE) kickstarted a 17-2 run to put MSOE up, 36-21, with 2:56 left in the first half. Nine different Raiders scored before halftime while Dominican (9-13, 7-7 NAC) was simply outhustled before the break, allowing 17 second-chance points and getting just four.
After the ceremony to honor the 10th anniversary of the championship squad at halftime, little changed for the 2013 team. The lead never dipped below eight and MSOE hit nearly two-thirds of its second-half shots, showing 64.3 percent marksmanship. Austin Stueck (Fr./South Milwaukee, Wis./AE-CM) continued to make his case for NAC Freshman of the Year honors in an impressive 75-second stretch, hustling to block what initially seemed to be an easy Michal Bobek fastbreak layup, grabbing a rebound, stealing a ball in the backcourt and recording a show-stopping dunk to dash any Stars' hopes for a comeback. Reserve forward Jerome Rhodes (So./Chicago/BM) sent the fans home happy by capping the Raiders' scoring with a dunk of his own.
In all, 14 different Raiders scored, led by Stueck with 18, Bande with 12 and Jeremiah Erdmann (So./Oakfield, Wis./BM) with 11. Jaren Singh (Jr./Madison, Wis./BM) had seven points and seven rebounds. Bobek and Taylor DeRoo each had 15 points for Dominican.
With the win, MSOE is now just a win or an Edgewood loss away from clinching a berth in the 2013 NAC Men's Basketball Tournament. The Raiders will play Edgewood in Madison, Wis. on Feb. 12 to conclude both teams' regular season, but MSOE must first face Concordia-Wisconsin on Wednesday and Concordia University Chicago on the road next Saturday. The CUW game will mark the Raiders' regular-season home finale and will tip off at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the Kern Center Box Office.
