Trojans end slide Friday, but lose Saturday

By: DAN HOLSWORTH, Madison Daily Leader Sports Editor

At the end of Friday's 76-73 Trojan win, Dakota State men's basketball coach Wade Kooiman reached his left hand behind his head and jerked an imaginary monkey off his back.

Kooiman's Trojans (6-18 overall and 2-10 in the Dakota Athletic Conference) had just ended a seven-game losing streak against the highly-regarded Hardrockers.

"Did you see how fast I did that?" asked Kooiman. "We didn't play perfect (basketball), but we played hard for 40 minutes. Our talent and athleticism took over from there. We defended well against the pattern offense and made some big plays down the stretch to pull out the win." On Saturday, however, DSU slipped back, dropping an 86-77 verdict to Black Hills State.

"I thought we played hard on Saturday, but not smart enough on defense to win," added Kooiman. "When you play against teams that are as talented as you are, you need to defend well and limit your own mental mistakes. We hung with them until the end. They just came up with a couple more big plays at the end."
 

DSU 76, Tech 73

The Trojans raced to a 48-40 halftime lead and then had to get some last-minute heroics by Leon Blue and Joe Backus.

Blake Hyde made the second of his double-bonus free throws against Tech with just 23 seconds left in the game.

Tech got the ball and took it down the floor, only to have Blue block a 3-pointer by Brandon Fredrickson.

Tech's Brandon Lord got the rebound, but then missed his 3-pointer. Backus got the rebound as time expired.

Blue came through for the Trojans on offense, garnering a game-tops 20 points as DSU shot 30-of-69 from the field. He also had nine rebounds and two steals.

Donald Williams also had 15 points for the Trojans, and Shuan Wisdom added 10 points and seven assists.

Hyde wound up with nine points, and Backus had five points and five rebounds.

Tech got 18 points from Casey Schmitz, 17 more from Lord and 10 apiece from Matt Lyndoe and Dave Lainhart.

Lord also had nine rebounds and five assists and Lainhart added eight more assists.

BHSU 86, DSU 77

DSU couldn't quite overtake Black Hills State, despite outscoring the Yellow Jackets 46-44 in the second half. The Trojans found themselves in a 42-31 first stop hole heading into the second half.

Five Trojans had double-digit scoring, with Blue, Backus and Matt Nulle each claiming 14 points. Wisdom added 13 counters and Williams had 10 as the Trojans shot 26-56 from the field and 20-30 at the charity stripe.

Blue also had five assists.

BHSU got 19 points from Hallard Jackson III and 18 by J.J. White. Ammon Beemis added 14 tallies and Casey Doolan and Forrest Dorr each had 13 as the Yellow Jackets went 29-66 from the field, including making six 3's.

Andre Goldberg also had five assists.
©Madison Daily Leader 2006