Box Score MOORHEAD, Minn. - Senior captain
Xavier Reed hit the go-ahead shot as the Dragons defeated the University of Mary Marauders 67-66 Saturday night at Alex Nemzek Fieldhouse. The Dragons' win moves them up to 11-5 in the NSIC, 15-5 overall, while the Marauders drop to 4-13 in the NSIC, 5-16 overall.
“They were not going to let our guards beat them in that situation,” said Coach
Chad Walthall about Reed's game-winning basket with just over a minute to play. “They were trapping ball screens. His man was helping on the ball handler.”
Charlie Chapman led all Dragons in scoring with 17, but struggled to get open against the athletic defenders from U-Mary towards the end of regulation play. He found Reed open for an eighteen-foot jump shot.
“X doesn't take many of those shots, but he's capable,” commented Coach Walthall.
The Dragons were challenged by the athleticism of the Marauders, especially from senior forward Damon Smith. U-Mary held a 28-25 halftime lead, with Smith scoring 17 of those points, but this was part of MSUM's game plan.
“We decided not to double-team him and let him get his points. He's good, but we didn't want to let the other guys get their points,” said Coach Walthall. Defending Smith was a team effort, which proved successful as the Dragons limited him to 8 second-half points.
“I just tried to be physical,” said Reed about guarding Smith. “We were giving him too much room to make his moves in the first half, and he has very good post moves. So between
Eric Olson,
Alex Novak and I, we tried to take that space away and it worked.”
Coach Walthall liked most of what he saw from his team on defense tonight, however U-Mary was able to pull ahead by as many as 9 points with just under 10 minutes left in the second half.
“I liked our defense maybe the last 8 minutes of the game, and our first half defense was pretty good. They only had 28 points. But our defense the first ten minutes of the second half wasn't good.”
Chapman was able to convert a three-point play to begin the comeback, with Novak adding a further emotional spark with a turn-around dunk off a
Jake Driscoll assist. Novak finished the game with a double-double, scoring 15 points with 10 rebounds.
“It was definitely good to get this win over Mary, as we haven't beaten them in a while,” said Reed. “They knocked us out of the first round of the playoffs last year. We thought we were going to do a bit better than that. This year we beat them on our court and felt really good about it.”
MSUM finished the game 25-for-54, 46.3%, from the field, 7-for-18, 38.9%, from three, and 10-for-17, 58.8%, from the free throw line. The Dragons were led in scoring by Chapman (17), Novak (15), Olson (7), and Driscoll (7).
U-Mary shot 28-for-55, 50.9%, from the field, 10-for-26, 38.5%, from three, and 0-for-0 from the free throw line. The Marauders were led in scoring by Damon Smith (25), Josh Turner (18), and Alex Dorr (11).
The Dragons will spend the next two weeks on the road, traveling to Duluth next Friday for an 8:00 game, and Bemidji on Saturday with a 6:00 tipoff.
Steve d'Eustachio's Stat of the Game: Tonight marked the fourth two-game travel partner sweep this season (Bemidji State and UM Duluth, December 2 and 3; Wayne State and Augustana, December 17 and 18; MSU Mankato and SW Minnesota State January 2 and 3; and now Northern State and U-Mary). The Dragons totaled only three two-game travel partner sweeps the previous four seasons, including only one last season (Bemidji State and UM Duluth, February 11 and 12).
Dragons Preview Fargo Forum
