Men's Basketball drops SCAC Opener at Colorado College
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The University of Dallas men's basketball team (3-5, 0-1 SCAC) fell 74-55 on Friday night at Colorado College (2-6, 1-0 SCAC). It was the conference opener for both teams. Dallas kept within a manageable difference most of the evening, but the Tigers' size inside proved too difficult for the visitors to overcome.
STAT NOTABLES
- Victor Garate (Austin, Texas) paced the Crusaders with 14 points (season-best). His 4 field goals tied a season-high from Dec. 1 against SW' Adventist and he hit three trifectas.
- Also breaking double-digits in scoring for his third consecutive game (Fourth-of-last-Five) was Prince Giadolor (Rockwall, Texas) with 12.
- Darrius Colvin (Waco, Texas) garnered a team-high seven rebounds and added to his team lead for the campaign.
- Dallas shot 33.9 percent (20-59) from the field, 31.8 percent (7-22) from three, and 47.1 percent (8-17) from the free throw line.
- The Crusaders did rattle off 11 points from as many Colorado College turnovers. The Tigers only had two points off miscues.
- Colorado College won the battle on the boards 47-34 and had almost as many offensive rebounds (33) as its opponent. The Tigers also outscored UD 32-22 for points in the paint.
- The home team shot 45.6 percent (26-57) from the floor and hit 17-of-24 (70.8%) at the charity stripe.
- John Hatch led the Tigers with 19 points, was part of a trio with eight rebounds, and posted four of the five blocks for his team. Chris Martin added 16 points and eight rebounds, while Ryan Young completed the trio on the glass with eight of his own.
- Two players on the bench for CC scoring double figures were Cooxooeii Black (13) and Sean Stem (12).
HOW IT HAPPENED
Hatch got the Tigers on the scoreboard first with a jump shot on the second possession of the game to give the home side a lead that never was relinquished that evening. Two minutes passed before Giadolor made a field goal that countered a 4-0 start for Colorado College. A trey by Edmund Pendleton stretched the margin to 7-2 three minutes in and then a cold spell hit both squads. CC's Eric Houska tallied a layup at 15:03 to end nearly a two-minute stretch neither side scored.
Dallas warmed up with eight unanswered points over the next couple minutes as Rory MacCallum's inside shot sparked the run. Lorenzo Gonzalez (San Antonio, Texas) chimed in with back-to-back threes for his only points to nip the deficit 11-10. Each side traded points before the next five points went to the Tigers, including a three-pointer by Hatch near the midway juncture of the frame. UD's Garate countered with a trey of his own and Emmanuel Calton (Keller, Texas) cut the margin to one again (18-17) with 9:18 until the break.
Another 5-0 spurt by the Tigers, this time with Martin and Stem scoring on a jumper and three-pointer, respectively, pushed a 23-17 lead on the next three possessions. The first double-digit advantage (30-20) went to Colorado College at 4:21 on a layup by Conner Reese. UD's Michael Sarrat (Colleyville, Texas) responded with his first triple of the night to cut the gap at seven. However, the Tigers went into halftime ahead 38-29.
In the first five minutes of the second stanza, Giadolor got the Dallas offense started with back-to-back field goals after the Tigers turned the ball over between them to narrow a 40-33 margin. The first five points for home came at the free throw line and kept the team in position. Sarrat's other trey of the game cut the deficit 43-36 with just under four minutes gone by. Martin's layup on a second chance possession marked the team's first field goal with 15:21. It also sparked a 7-0 run CC used to go up by its greatest margin of the contest so far, 50-36.
Two and a half minutes went by without the Tigers moving past the half-century mark in points. Dallas got within 10 again (50-40) on a three-point play from Xavier Cannon (Humble, Texas) with about 12 minutes to go. Garate, who made the previous UD point by splitting at the line, would make the next two and scored eight straight for the Crusaders. His second of consecutive made trifectas left the visitors trailing 56-48.
That was as close as Colorado College allowed it, with a 6-0 surge propelling its margin back into double-digits and enough to win the first league contest. Black had two layups Stem's jumper completed the scoring streak at 62-48 with just over eight to play in regulation.
UP NEXT
Dallas returns to the Maher Center to start a five-game home stand on Sunday. The season-long stretch begins with the second meeting of the year against Hendrix College. Tip-off is slated for around 4 p.m. after the women's basketball tip.