Men's Basketball Stops Duhawks Offense
Jan 31, 2015
DUBUQUE, Iowa - The University of Dubuque men's basketball team led for 33:38 of the 40 minutes on Saturday and dominated the Iowa Conference match-up over the Loras College Duhawks 83-57. The Spartans led by 17 points at halftime and extended that lead to 27 points in the second half to improve to 15-4 overall and 6-3 in the IIAC and moved to within two games of the conference lead.
Lucas Ware led UD in scoring for the first time this season with 20 points after sinking 6-11 shots from the field, 7-8 free throw attempts, and a game high 11 rebounds.
"Ware (Lucas) had maybe his best overall game in a Spartan uniform and I felt like he really controlled the entire game," added Head Coach Robbie Sieverding on his senior point guard.
Andre Norris finished the afternoon with 17 points and Gage Heffernan 14 points as UD shot over 52% from field. Once UD led by double digits, the Spartan faithful drowned out the sparse Duhawk crowd, who had little to cheer about in the lopsided loss as UD swept the series.
Defensively UD stepped up their game after Wednesday's loss and forced 17 Duhawk turnovers and scored 20 points.
"Our team really played well on the defensive end," said Coach Sieverding. "We held a very good offensive team to 32 percent from the field and 26 percent from beyond the three point arc while playing great team defense."
UD patiently worked the ball to the open student-athlete and finished the night sinking 29-55 shot attempts and 7-14 attempts from the three point area. Fourteen Spartans saw action in the victory and nine Spartans scored. Kain Arthofer led the Spartan bench with nine points in just 15 minutes of playing time. The Spartans out rebounded Loras 41-35 and dominated the inside game by scoring 38 points in the paint.
The conference schedule doesn't get any easier as UD continues their road trip on Wednesday, February 4 when they play in Pella, Iowa against the Central College Dutch (10-9 overall, 3-5 in the IIAC) who lost at Buena Vista Saturday 74-86.
Norris leads the Spartans in scoring this season with a 19.3 ppg average and 20.3 ppg in league play. Heffernan ranks second in scoring for the Spartans with 14.4 ppg and 15.4 ppg in IIAC. The pair entered Saturday being ranked in the Top-6 in the IIAC in scoring with Norris leading by .2 ppg over Central's Nile Eckerman's 21.1. The Spartans return home on Saturday, Feb. 7 when they host Coe College, a team they played just 10 days prior and lost 63-69.
"Central makes more threes than anybody in our league and have several players playing at a high level," said Coach Sieverding. "It will be a tough place to play and we will need to be locked in, especially on the defensive end, in order to win on Wednesday."
