Sports

Jacks win opening playoff game

By Tyler Ohmann

02/28/2012

The Dakota College at Bottineau Lumberjacks defeated the odds and the United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) last Sunday in the first round of the sub region playoffs in Bismarck.

UTTC had beaten the Jacks all three previous meetings during the season including a 68-60 victory in Bottineau on Feb. 16.

However, the Jacks were able to overcome and used a solid second half defensive effort to push past the T-birds in a 74-58 win.

DCB held the T-birds to only 24 second half points, while scoring enough to expand a 35-34 halftime lead.

“When we run the floor both offensively and defensively we seem to get into rhythm,” stated Jacks Head Coach Ken Keysor. “The second half we really did a nice job of defending their scorers with some tenacity.”

The Jacks out shot the T-birds 44 to 35 percent from the field and also hit nine three pointers, while UTTC hit only one.

“We feel that if we can hit open shots we will be in any game, however when you hold a MonDak team to 24 points in a half it certainly leads to good things,” Keysor stated.

Cameron Malzer led the Jacks with 19 points and 11 assists in the game. Colby Boyes had 17 points, including five three pointers. Jadyen McMillin was one rebound shy of a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds.

The Jacks will advance to the sub-region title game against Bismarck State College tomorrow.

“We seem to be playing more cohesively lately where all we care about is winning and not who is scoring.  That’s a good sign,” Keysor stated. “We hope to continue that trend on Wednesday as we enter the Sub-Region Championship game against BSC.”

They also lost to the Mystics three times during the regular season.

“We haven’t had luck with beating them this year, but then again we had been 0-3 against UTTC,” Keysor stated. “We know we have a difficult task ahead, but we feel ready to meet the challenge.”

Regular season shutdown

The Jacks split their remaining MonDak regular season games earlier in the week.

They began with a 92-87 win over Lake Region State on Monday in Bottineau.

The Jacks came back from a six-point halftime deficit to out score the Royals 54-43 in the second half in route to the five-point win.

McMillin had 26 points in the win as the Jacks shot 12-for-27 from beyond the arc—44 percent.

Boyes had a career-high 24 points in the win.
Also in double figures for DCB were Malzer (14) and Jeremy Chambers (12).

Keysor was happy with the Jacks ability to remain unafraid despite falling behind early.

“We were very proud of how we got down 9-0 and didn’t hit the panic button as we have in the past,” Keysor stated. “We played through the stagnation and started to prime the pump.”

The Jacks finished out the regular season with a 97-69 loss to Williston State.

DCB fell behind early as the Tetons used their athleticism to work the transition game into their favor.

“The funny thing is that WSC just recently had been beaten by LRSC, basketball, odd things happen,” Keysor stated. “We were hoping to fine tune ourselves before the playoffs on Sunday, but instead were taken to the whipping shed.”

McMillin led the Jacks with 20 points and six rebounds. He was the only Jack to score in double figures in the 28-point loss.