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Basketball: Jackets' comeback falls short
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FarkSPEARFISH — University of Mary, a former member of the Dakota Athletic Conference, led from start to finish in an 89-78 win over Black Hills State in a non-conference men’s basketball game on Thursday at the Young Center.
Geoff West pumped in 17 points, pacing four Mary players in double-figure scoring. Eric Erdmann connected for 16, Zach Dosch 13 and Jordan Wilhelm 11.
BHSU was led by a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds from freshman Will John Johnson. Johnson’s classmate, Cain Atkinson, drained 16 points, including 10-of-12 at the charity stripe.
Mary gained a 12-4 advantage when Erdmann sank a 3-pointer with 15:38 left in the half. It was an uphill battle for the Yellow Jackets from that point on. The lead grew to 22-9 after West sank a trey.
“We were flat to start,” BHSU coach Paul Sather said. “We didn’t come in with a defensive mindset. Our defensive effort didn’t give us much of a chance to win.”
Mary converted 57 percent of its shot attempts in the first half. BHSU hit on 33 percent of its first half shots.
In spite of the rough first half, the Jackets closed the deficit to 37-34 on three-pointers by Randy Herman and Atkinson. However, Danny Sandvig answered by draining a shot from beyond the three-point arc.
University of Mary held a 40-34 halftime lead.
The visitors pushed their lead to 15 points (57-42) on a slam dunk by Tate Kick with 11:47 left in the contest.
Atkinson’s trifecta pulled the Jackets to within 68-61 at the 5:36 mark. Once again, the Marauders provided an answer, as
Marcus Fridley downed a three-pointer. Mary eventually stretched its lead to 17 points.
“I thought we made a couple of decent runs at them,” Sather said. “We couldn’t string two or three stops together.
“What this game boils down to was defense. We have to make defense more important. We didn’t finish well on our inside shots.”
Sam Kim and Parfait Nayigihugu were on the injured list for Thursday game for BHSU. Kim will undergo an MRI today to determine the extent of an ankle injury.
“We’ll know more about Parfait next week,” Sather said.
With the injuries, BHSU received some good news just prior to the Christmas break. Parker Emerson, a transfer from Portland University, will join the team for the second semester, Emerson, a sophomore from Windsor, Colo., was the 4A Player of the Year in Colorado in 2005. Bradd Schafer, current men’s assistant coach at BHSU, was Emerson’s coach at Windsor.
Coach Sather said he expects Emerson to be able to play his first game at BHSU on either January 3 at Johnson and Wales, or January 11 at home versus Jamestown College.
The Jackets’ next action is December 28 and 29 at the Perkins Classic against Dordt, Iowa, College and Montana State-Northern, respectively.
The Marauders, current members of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, improved to 3-7 overall.
Black Hills State's Luke Enos rips down a rebound over University of Mary's Zach Dosch (44) and Justin Belohlavek during second-half play Thursday night in Spearfish. (Seth A. McConnell/Journal staff)
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