Box Score Through the first half the Conquistador men's basketball team could not create any separation between themselves and the Western Oklahoma State College team they faced on Friday. It got worse in the early part of the second half as the Conqs fell behind by as much as nine points, but one big run changed all of that and propelled them to a 105-100 victory over the Pioneers.
In the first half each of the teams both got off to tentative starts the Conqs jumped out to a quick lead, but could never seem to shake the Pioneers in the first ten minutes of the game. At the first half media timeout, Dodge City led by a single point at 22 to 21. After building a small lead coming out of that timeout Western stormed back taking a 28-17 lead and forced a Conq timeout with 6:42 remaining in the half. Both teams would battle from that point on during the first period as the half ended with Western Oklahoma leading 46-44.
The second half started much of the same way, but seemed to be even more offensively frustrating for Dodge City while the Pioneers started finding an outside shooting touch. With about 13 minutes remaining Western had stretched out to a 69-60 lead over the Conqs. That was where everything changed for Dodge City.
Jet Taylor seemed to find his offensive rhythm at that point and the whole team responded to his energy. The Conqs proceeded to go on a 16-4 run to take a 76-73 lead at the second half media timeout. The timeout did not slow down the Conqs as they came out of that break and scored nine more straight to make it a 25-4 run and take an 85-73 lead. Western would find their footing after that, but the damage was done. The Conqs remained solid on the offensive end and held off a late barrage of threes from the Pioneers to hold on for the 105-100 victory.
Jyrus Freels continued his torrid pace of scoring and rebounding for Dodge City as he led the Conqs in both categories with 26 points and 12 rebounds. He got plenty of help on the scoring side as five other Conqs scored double figures. Taylor was second with 17 points.
Joe Petrakis returned to the starting lineup with 13 points, and
Justice Dixon and
UniQue Mency each tallied 12 points.
Andrew Stuman rounded out the double digit scorers with 10 points. Dixon was also able to tally 9 assists on the night leaving him just one assist short from his second straight double-double.
The win moves the Conqs to 3-0 on the year. They will see their stiffest test of the year on Saturday as they face #2 South Plains College in a 4:00pm game in Liberal. South Plains defeated Seward County 79-76 on Friday.
