Sports
Jacks hoops continue their strong start with three more wins
Tyler Ohmann
11/19/2013
Another strong week for the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) men’s team translated to three victories against tough opponents.
The Jacks kicked off the week with a 71-63 win over Dawson Community College (DCC) in front of the home crowd. DCB then traveled to Wahpeton to participate in their classic and downed Presentation JV 91-60 on Saturday and Hibbing Community College (HCC) 81-72 on Sunday.
The Jacks began their what wound up being a three-win week with a 71-63 win over DCC at home.
DCB opened up an early lead and led 38-30 at the break against their Division I junior college opponent. DCC played the Jacks tougher in the second half, and buckets didn’t come quite as easy as both teams scored 33 and DCB held on to an eight-point victory.
Four Jacks finished with double figures in scoring and they were led by Xavier Cruz’s 16 points off the bench.
Julian Vasquez posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Travis Frye and Gilberto Shojgreen added 12 and 10 points respectively off the bench. Shojgreen added four steals and a couple rim-shaking dunks.
DCB continued their week with another victory on Saturday to open the NDSCS Classic. They took down the Presentation JV Saints handily with a 91-60 victory.
The Jacks kicked off the game strong as they leapt out to an early lead. They eventually were up by 25 by halftime.
“During the first half the guys did a great job of causing havoc with defensive traps and hard rotations, but we definitely had moments where team focus was not present,” stated Jacks head coach Cory Fehrigner. “We expect our players to play the possession instead of the score, and with having many young players this team has a tendency to take plays off.”
Things toned down on defense in the second half, but the Jacks offense put another 45 points, and won by 31.
Seven Jacks were in double figures, including four of the five starters.
The balanced attack was led again by Cruz, who had 14 points in 20 minutes off the bench. Sam Robinson, Vasquez, Jake Arck and Shojgreen all had 10 points per game. Wesley Harrison had 12 points. Cruz added four steals and three assist, both team-bests, while Vasquez had a team-high eight rebounds.
The Jacks won again on Sunday as they topped HCC in overtime 81-72.
“This game was self-destruction on both sides as we turned the ball over 20 times, but was fortunate Hibbing CC had 30 turnovers,” Fehringer stated. “It was a positive win for the program because we were forced into a corner, and pulled together at the right time to hold onto a win.”
DCB came out of the gates a little slower against the Cardinals and led by only four points at halftime. The Cards then rallied in the second half and erased that deficit to force overtime.
The Jacks had one of their worst shooting performances of the season as they were only 17.4 percent from beyond the arc and under 40 percent from the field for the first time this season.
The win was even more impressive due to that for Fehringer.
“Once again if there was a silver lining from an OT victory outside of the win column, it’s fairly easy to win games when the ball goes in the basket but how does your team respond when shots are not falling,” Fehringer stated. “We answered that question through defense and rebounding. A great team has the guts to defend and the guts to rebound every game.”
Cruz again had a strong outing with 18 points, six boards and six steals. Vasquez added 17 points and six rebounds. Shojgreen had nine boards and eight points in the overtime victory.
The wins put the Jacks at 6-1 on the season and on a three-game win streak.
Their next contest is at 7 p.m. tonight as they host Concordia JV. They will also host two games this weekend as part of the Cobblestone Classic.