For the first time since 1974, the Dodge City men's basketball team stepped on the floor at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, Kansas to compete in the NJCAA Division I National Tournament and continued their season behind an 82-65 victory over Snow.
The win moves the Conquistadors to 30-4 on the season and marks the first time in program history that the men's basketball program has won 30 games in a single season. The Conqs move into the Elite Eight of the National Tournament and will now play at 2:00 pm on Thursday, March 17th against Northwest Florida State who beat Indian Hills in the round of 16.
The first half was a grind as the Conqs battled the Badgers of Snow and the first half was back-and-forth until Snow would work a nine-point lead at 32-23 with just under seven minutes in the first half. The Conqs would cut the lead to three at 34-31 with 3:33 left in the half but Snow would finish the first half on an 8-0 run making it 42-31 at intermission. Out of halftime the Conqs came out strong and put together a 14-0 run to open the second half over five and half minutes to take a 45-42 lead. After back-and-forth the next few minutes, the Conqs would grow their lead to six and then 11-points at 62-51 with 8:04 left in the contest. Conqs would continue to maintain a multi-position lead and went on to stretch the lead out in the end to finish the game 82-65 using a 51-23 second half to take the contest.
For the 18th time, this season the Conqs shot over 50% in a game as a team shooting 53.1% from the floor, and won the rebounding battle 38-29.
Themus Fulks paced the Conqs with 24 points on 11-16 shooting and dished out seven assists, while
BJ Freeman chipped in 13 points.
Kerwin Prince off the bench was 5-6 from the field finishing with 11 points and seven rebounds.
Kalen Williams and
Oumar Koureissi each finished with 10 points, while
Nick Pringle finished with seven points and grabbed 12 rebounds.
The Conqs will continue their National Tournament campaign on Thursday, March 17th in the Elite Eight against Northwest Florida State at 2:00 pm.
