Box Score The Dodge City men's basketball team was looking to get off to a quick start this season and they got exactly that in their opener on Thursday night. The Conqs never trailed on their way to a 122-89 victory over Sisseton Wahpeton College of South Dakota.
The first half saw the Conqs and the Mustangs battle back and forth for a solid 20 minutes. Dodge City jumped out to an early lead, but they were never able to completely shake the Mustangs. It appeared early on that the size of the Conqs was going to be the big advantage in the game. Both
Jyrus Freels and
Joe Petrakis got off to good starts as they outsized and outmuscled the Mustangs in the paint. At one point SWC pulled to within 11-9, but the Conqs used a big run capped by an impressive dunk from
Jet Taylor to stretch the lead out to 18-11. The game would be back and forth during the remainder of the first half, but the Conqs managed to go to the locker room leading by a 46-41 count.
The second half started out looking like it was going to be a repeat of the first half with each team trading points and keeping the game very close. The Mustangs managed to tie the game up at 62 with about 14 minutes left in the game, but that was where the Conqs would explode.
Kevin Howard hit back to back three pointers to immediately give the Conqs a six point lead, then the offensive barrage came from Dodge City. The Conqs started making threes from all of over the floor.
UniQue Mency and Mason Seniguar both came off the bench to hit big shots as Mency was 5 for 5 behind the arc and Seniguar hit two big threes. That offensive explosion allowed Dodge to stretch the lead to a comfortable margin where it stayed above 20 point for the final eight minutes of the game.
Freels led the offensive attack for the Conqs as he posted 37 points and 11 rebounds. Four other Conqs reached double figures as well as Mency had 20 points,
Justice Dixon had 15 points and 11 assists, Howard finished with 14 points, while Petrakis tallied 10 on the game. Taylor had a solid all around performance as he had nine points, seven assists, and five rebounds.
The Conqs will return to action on Monday night when they host Bethany College JV at 7:30pm in the Student Activity Center.
