Hastings Men With Win At Dordt

Sioux Center, IA – If you were inside DeWitt Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon, you had a chance to watch a great basketball game between Hastings College and Dordt University as a late turnover sealed the win for the Broncos 80-78.

The Broncos and the Defenders went back-and-forth as neither team was able to pull away until the Broncos built a double digit lead in the second half but Hastings knew that Dordt was not going to go away as the Broncos had only won one time at Dordt in school history coming into the game and it would be the long ball that got Dordt back into the game.

Ben Fairclough would make three big threes and eventually brought the deficit from 10 points down to just two with under 7:00 to go in regulation. Yohan-Steve Yebga came back with a jumper but the Defenders countered with a Jackson Louscher jumper as HC now led 70-68 with 6:23 to go.

Dordt then tied the game with a Luke Rankin jumper and regained the lead on two Brycy Coppock free throws. Later in the half after Reggie Thomas had tied the game twice, Rankin drained a three to five the Defenders a 77-74 lead with 1:42 to go.

Then Grady Corrigan made two free throws and the Broncos got a defensive stop and Thomas found Anthony Thompson all by himself for the layup to go up 78-77 with 1:12 to go. After another defensive stop and the shot clock running out, Thomas put up a three and would miss but Tyrique McMurrin corralled the offensive board getting the ball to Thompson as he would get fouled with :09 left to play. Thompson calmly stepped up and made both free throws.

Hastings decided to foul Dordt so they couldn’t get a three off and Coppock made the first but missed the second as Thompson pulled down the rebound. Unfortunately he would miss both free throws as the Broncos clung to the 80-78 lead with just :04 left to play. Thompson would make up for the missed free throws as he stole the ball from Coppock to seal the huge win for the Broncos.

Thomas went off again as he finished with a game high 29 points on 10-of-18 shooting as he was 3-for-6 from downtown and 6-for-7 from the line. Thomas also pulled down six boards, dished out four assists and stole the rock six times. Thompson finished with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting and was 3-for-5 from behind the arc. Corrigan and Quinn Johnson each had 10 points.

Again the Broncos shot the ball well hitting 53.6 percent (30-for-56) from the floor. Both teams shot it well from downtown as Hastings was 9-for-21 while Dordt was 11-for-22. Dordt won the rebounding battle 37-to-26 but the main difference in the game was points off turnovers as Hastings had 19 compared to zero for Dordt.

Hastings improves to 9-2 (6-0) on the year and will be back in action Saturday Dec. 16 hitting the road to take on Dakota State with tipoff set for 5:00 pm up in Madison, SD.