GPAC Comes Out on Top in
Ed Harter Classic

November 12, 2007
BY DAN HOLSWORTH - MADISON DAILY LEADER SPORTS EDITOR

(Madison, SD) - Nebraska's Dana and Hastings colleges each picked up two wins, representing the Great Plains Athletic Conference in the annual Ed Harter Men's Basketball Classic at the DSU Fieldhouse in Madison.

DSU's Trojans and Mayville State University, Dakota Athletic Conference members, were their victims. Dana opened the Harter Classic with an 81-66 defeat of Mayville, which was followed by the Trojans' 85-73 loss to Hastings.

Saturday's games were much closer. Hastings edged Mayville 73-70 and Dana nipped the Trojans 70-67. "(Despite the losses), we played some of our best basketball of the year here," said DSU Coach Wade Kooiman. "Our big-minutes guys got into too much foul trouble, though, and it really hurt us both nights. Hastings and Dana just spent too much time at the free throw line.

"We had our opportunities in both games, but we just didn't take advantage of our ability to outwork our opponents. We have to become more disciplined in our man-to-man defense, use less of our hands and more of our feet."

FRIDAY'S GAMES
Dana 81, Mayville 66

Dana powered its way a 40-23 halftime cushion and then held Mayville at bay the rest of the way.

Gabe Bross, Trent Mumma, Eric Maassen and Sean Johnson had respective 22-, 19-, 13- and 11-point games to lead Dana to shoot 26-for-73 from the field and 25-31 at the free throw line.

Johnson also had six assists, and Doug Huston and A.J. Arkfield each had five. Dana's defense limited Mayville to just 22-61 field goal shooting and a 16-232 charity stripe display. Tremel Gilot had 16 points and Dave Johnson had 10 points.

Alfonso McNeal added 13 rebounds and four assists.

Hastings 85, DSU 73

Joe Backus came through with 16 points, Jason DeZeeuw 11, and Derek Kreutzfeldt 10, but that was all the double-figures scoring that the Trojans could muster. Hastings' quartet of double-digit scorers was led by Scott Wissing who had a game-high 21 points, edging teammate Bobby Kempf, who netted 20. Cory Fehringer added 16 points and Michael Etzelmiller had 11.

Hastings took advantage of a foul-plagued Trojans team, producing 34-43 numbers at the free throw line. The winners outrebounded DSU 45-40 with Wissing and Kempf having respective 11- and 10-rebound nights. DSU got 12 rebounds from Backus.

SATURDAY'S GAMES
Hastings 73, Mayville 70

It took a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Wissing to make Hastings 73-70 winners over Mayville. Wissing ended up as the game highs scorer, putting together a 28-point outing. Fehringer also scored 19 points and Kempf 11 for the Broncos, who lifted their record to 4-0.

Mayville (2-4) got 21 points from Gilot, 20 more by Ron Dunlap, 13 from Marques Benjamin and 10 by Ethan Evanson. Benjamin also dished out 10 assists and claimed 10 rebounds, completing a triple-double outing.

Dana 70, DSU 67

DSU (1-5) forged a 37-30 lead over Dana, only to have Dana go on a 40-30 scoring run to hand the Trojans the defeat. Backus and Derek Powell were the Trojans' top scorers with 16 and 15 points, respectively, helping the Trojans to 24-52 field goal shooting and a 16-22 charity stripe outing. Dana (4-1) earned a 21-16 edge in free throw scoring to gain the win.

The winners were led by Eric Maassen, who had 19 points. Johnson also had double-figures scoring, netting 10 points. The Trojans, though, outrebounded Dana 45-29 with Andy Hansen snatching nine rebounds and Kreutzfeldt and Brett Gardner each claiming seven.

Dana got seven rebounds from Maassen. On Friday, the Trojans host Waldorf College in a non-conference contest at 6 p.m.

Nick Huntimer, Dakota State Sports Information Director