Sports

Jacks earn two more road wins

By Tyler Ohmann

01/07/2014

The success of the 20th ranked Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) men’s basketball team continued this past weekend in a trip to Minnesota.

The Jacks traveled to Thief River Falls, Minn. to take part in the Min-Dak Classic, and came home with a pair of victories.

DCB took down host Northland Community and Technical College 72-60 on Friday, and then beat Rainy River Community College (RRCC) 99-73 on Saturday.

First on Friday the Jacks took down the Pioneers by a 12-point margin thanks to a good day from the field. DCB shot 55 percent from the floor and 40 percent from beyond the arc in the contest. However, they turned the ball over 28 times, which kept the Pioneers in the game.

“There were several reasons to be displeased with the overall execution throughout the game, but we also held NCTC to just 60 points,” stated Jacks head coach Cory Fehringer. “Regardless of some of the miscues passing or catching the basketball we played strong team defense, and rebounded the ball with much physicality.”

Jalyn Turner had a career-best game with 29 points and three steals.

Julian Vasquez, a sophomore, added 18 points.

Patrick Robinson added 14 points off the bench and point guard Xavier Cruz had 10 rebounds off the bench as well.

Both the Jacks offense and defense came to play on Saturday as they topped RRCC by 26.

DCB got off to a bit of a slow start as they led by only eight points at halftime. In the second half the Jacks stepped on the gas and scored 56 points in the second half to come away with the win.

“Of course the game was far from perfect, but the individual and collective effort was something we have come to expect,” Fehringer stated.

Again the Jacks offense was strong as they shot 59.1 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from beyond the arc.

The Jacks defense stepped up too as they held the Voyageurs to 31.6 percent from the field and 28.2 percent from beyond the arc. DCB also forced 18 turnovers, while reducing their turnovers to 15.

Vasquez was again a leader for the Jacks as he notched team-bests in points (19), rebounds (eight), assists (four) and steals (three).
Four other Jacks were in double figures on the day in scoring: Wesley Harrison and Turner had 12 points each, Cruz added 11 points off the bench and Billy Engel had an efficient game with 10 points and seven rebounds.

The Jacks (17-2) will start the tougher part of their schedule with their first MonDak game on Thursday in Bismarck. They will travel to take on Division I Bismarck State College. The Mystics are 10-4 this season.

“They have a good group of players with a new coach who has BSC playing a different style than last year,” Fehringer stated.  “We look forward to opening up conference play as games now carry much more weight.”