Lake Leads Spartans to Victory at Daytona Beach Shootout
Dec 18, 2017
DAYTONA, Fla. – The University of Dubuque men’s basketball team tipped off the Daytona Beach Shootout with a thrilling 80-75 win over Lawrence University. TJ Lake led the Spartans and all scorers with 31 points.
After Lawrence jumped out to a quick lead and held the lead for the first 10 minutes of action before the Spartans rallied to take the lead with 9:22 left in the first half on a Jamaree Atwater and one. The Spartans would grow that lead to as many as eight points before Lawrence answered with a rally of their own and to take a 39-38 lead into halftime after buzzer beating three pointer.
Both teams began to exchange baskets and the lead for the first eight minutes of the first half when Jamaree Atwater hit a jumper with 11:52 remaining to give the Spartans the lead for good. UD would get their lead up to nine points with 4:45 remaining before Lawrence made one last push. With the Spartans clinging to a late 76-73 lead, Marcus McDaniel came up with a steal with nine seconds left and turned it into a layup to seal the victory for UD.
Lake scored his 31 points on 10-20 shooting from the field with four three pointers and making seven of eight free throws. Jamaree Atwater was the only other Spartan to reach double figures in scoring, finishing with 19 points and seven rebounds in just 24 minutes of action. Michael Williams came into the game having only played 11 total minutes this season with five points, but came off the bench on Monday afternoon to provide a spark for the Spartans, playing 23 minutes, scoring eight points and grabbing six rebounds.
UD forced Lawrence into 22 turnovers and made them pay, scoring 28 points off of those 22 turnovers.
The Spartans will play their second and final game of the Dayton Beach Shootout tomorrow night at 5:00 CST against Berry University.
