Crusaders outdo Tigers in Hot Shooting Battle in Game One of Colorado Weekend

COLORADO SPRING, Colo. - The University of Dallas men's basketball team began their final road series against Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) opponent Colorado College on Saturday. Dallas won their second straight defeating the Tigers by the score of 87-78.

Dallas fell behind early in the first half with Colorado taking their largest lead of the game at 7-1. UD eventually tied the game and took the lead 18-17 with under eight minutes until halftime and never trailed again in the game.

Both teams shot respectably in the first half with Colorado just outshooting Dallas 42.9%-41.9%. In the second half the two teams were blazing hot as they both shot over 50% from the field. Colorado shot 55.2% and scored 51 points in the second half and Dallas shot 51.7% scoring 49.

Five separate Crusaders scored double digits in the game. Michael Wambsganss (Denver, Colo.) was the team high scorer with a sesaon-best 17 points on 5-8 from the three-point line and 2-2 from the foul line. Letrell Toussaint (Waco, Texas) scored 14 points in the game and earned his fifth double-double of the season with 12 rebounds. Dustin Mathis (Ft. Worth, Texas) scored 14 points, which included a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line, and Jai Love (St. Louis Missouri) and Jacob Giunta (Keller, Texas) each scored 10 points. Love also had a season high seven assists for the night and Mathis recorded six dimes of his own.

Colorado's Jack McCrosky was the game high scorer with 20 points 6-11 shooting, 1-2 from beyond the arc and 7-9 from the charity stripe. Sam Kinney and Fisher Gates had 18 and 12 points for the Tigers and Trey Crawford led the team with 11 rebounds.

Colorado scored the first five points of the game on a made free throw by McCrosky, a layup by Kinney, and a jump shot by Deante' Dennis. Dallas then scored six of the next eight points to tie the game at 7-7.

Colorado then scored another five straight points, and from there Dallas eventually went on to tie the game at 15-15. UD then took their first lead of the game off a layup by Marcus Juarez. After a pair of made free throws by Dennis to tie the game, the Crusaders outscored the Tigers 21-10 through the rest of the half.

Both teams' fantastic shooting prevented either of them from going on any significant runs in the second half. Just before the midpoint of the half, UD took their largest lead of the game at 61-46 off a three-pointer by Juarez. A few minutes later, UD matched that lead again at 69-54 on a layup by Giunta. Over the last eight and a half minutes, Colorado outscored the Crusaders 24-18 to reach the final score of 87-78.

Dallas improves their season record to 3-6 overall and in league play, while the loss drops Colorado's record to 0-7. The final game of the regular season for UD will be on Saturday at 4 p.m. CST in Colorado.