Men's Basketball rolls to 3rd Straight Road Win on Monday at Arlington Baptist
ARLINGTON, Texas – The University of Dallas men's basketball team stormed out to a 30-point lead at halftime, and used sharp shooting performances from the field and three-point arc en route to a 103-72 victory at Arlington Baptist on Monday night.
Things were close through the first seven minutes, but 12 straight points for the Crusaders sparked a 30-6 run over the next 10 minutes to build a huge margin. Dallas was one three-pointer shy of matching the singe-game record with 13 total. Six different players contributed from downtown, led by Michael Wambsganss (Denver, Colo.) going 5-for-9 to help boast his game-high 21 points.
Dallas improved to 12-8 and won the first three games on this five-game road swing. The team has played within the past four days as well.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Patriots started out with a 6-2 lead through the first two minutes, but the guests got the offense rolling shortly after. Joshua Nunn (St. Louis, Mo.) made a basket and got the harm to earn an old fashioned three-point play. A few plays later, Darrius Colvin (Waco, Texas) swiped a steal and found Wambsganss for his first three of the night to make it 8-6 in favor of UD.
Dallas never trailed from that juncture, but there were a couple ties over the next few moments. A trifecta by Nunn at 15:14 put the Crusaders up for good, but it was a layup by Colvin two and a half minutes later that started the big unanswered stretch to make it 29-14.
Jashun Petite for Arlington Baptist halted the run, but then a trey by Dustin Mathis (Forth Worth, Texas) sparked another streak of 10 in a row for the road squad. Mathis had eight points in the first half, with a pair of threes starting and capping that second scoring stretch.
In the first half, the Crusaders shot 64.9 percent (14-27) from the floor and made five three-pointers out of nine attempts. Dallas was able to lead by as many as 30 in the frame, with Levi finding Colvin on a fastbreak layup to reach the margin the first time at 50-20 with 2:24. Layups by Ben Norton (Louisville, Ky.), and another Nunn trifecta finished UD's scoring heading into the break ahead 55-25.
The Patriots did shoot 40.7 percent in the first half, but were hurt by 11 turnovers.
The second half presented a much more even game, but the damage had already been done by the Crusaders. A trio of three-pointers towards midway of the half gave Dallas its greatest lead of the game by 35. Wambsganss was feeling it as he nailed consecutive looks, and then Colvin answered an Arlington Baptist field goal with a trey of his own. Wambsganss connected on his final triple with six to go, and pushed the team back up to its greatest margin at 91-56.
As the minutes ticked down, the Crusaders were able to play most of their reserves with 12 getting time on the floor. Maurice Compton (San Antonio, Texas) snagged the steal that led to his first career points and put UD into triple-digits the first time on the campaign.
NOTABEL STATISTICS
A trio of players scored eight field goals apiece including: Wambsganss, Colvin, and Spencer Levi (St. Louis, Mo.). This same group posted tops in scoring respectively with 21, 19, and 16 points. Levi grabbed a team-high nine rebounds, while dishing a personal-best six assists. Emmanuel Calton (Keller, Texas) also had six dimes.
13 different players recorded points for Dallas to help the squad boast season-bests in field goal shooting (41-68) and three-point shooting (13-25). The Crusaders outrebounded their opposition 39-27 and notched a season-high 30 assists. Turnovers ended up even at 19. The Dallas bench outscored ABC 50-23.
A quintet of Patriots eclipsed double-digits in points led by Quinton Moore with 14. Kei Wallace and Kennedy Jones each had 12. Petite scored 11 and Donnell Johnson added 10. Jones snagged a game-high 10 boards for a double-double.
TIP-INS
The program's record for three-pointers is 14 versus John Brown on January 20th, 1990. The last time UD had 13 in a game was twice during the 2012-13 campaign. On February 16th at Trinity University and November 30th verses Connecticut College.
The Crusaders netted above 100 points in three contests last season. Counting tonight's game, the past four occurrences have been to teams outside of SCAC play, and five from the past four season have been at the home confines.
Dallas improves to 9-3 in the all-time series with the Patriots. Those setbacks had occurred in each of the last road outings dating back to 2011-12. All those decisions were decided by less four points or less.
SOCIAL MEDIA
#UDCrusaders Men's Basketball played on �� last night in their 3rd straight win on the road! | @UDallasMBB #GoUD #UDMBB #d3h pic.twitter.com/RIVya7s9Xm
— UDallas Athletics (@UDallasSports) January 30, 2018
UP NEXT
Dallas has wrapped up non-conference action for the season, and resume focus on SCAC foes the remaining five matchups. This stretch starts with two more road tips at Centenary College on Feb. 2nd and Austin College the 3rd.