Spartans Stumble Against Kohawks
Jan 9, 2019
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The University of Dubuque men’s basketball team dropped their second consecutive American Rivers Conference matchup, this time losing at Coe College, 86-70.
With the score tied at 4-4 three minutes into the game, the Spartans fell victim to a 12-1 Kohawk run, which eventually expanded to a 20-5 Coe run to put the Spartans behind the eight ball early in the first half. The Kohawks slowly built their lead up to as many as 20 points in the first half but Avery Butler and Marcus McDaniel scored the final five points of the half for the Spartans to trim the deficit from 20 to 15 heading into the break.
Despite the Spartans shooting an impressive 46.4% (13-28) in the first half, the Kohawks were on another level as they hit a staggering 67.9% (19-28) of their shots in the first half, including eight three’s.
The Spartans scored eight of the first 12 points of the second half to get within 11 points of the Kohawks at 50-39 with 16:56 remaining, but that was the closest the Spartans would get for the remainder of the night. The Kohawk hot shooting carried over to the second half and put the Spartans down by as many as 24 points and UD could never make a run of their own.
The Kohawks would go on to shoot 66.0% (35-53) for the game, while UD posted a shooting percentage of 50.9% (28-55). A key difference in this game came from behind the arc, Coe drained 13 three pointers, while the Spartans managed to only make six.
Even in the loss, four different Spartans scored 10 points or more. Marcus McDaniel led the way with 13 points with Michael Williams right behind him with 11. Avery Butler and Josh Evans combined for 20 points with 10 each. Evans had a very efficient night as he led UD with five rebounds to go with his 10 points in just 11 minutes of action.
UD forced Coe into 14 turnovers, which led to 16 points off turnovers for the Spartans, doubling up the Kohawks points off turnovers.
UD will look to snap the two game losing streak on Saturday when they host Buena Vista at 4:00 p.m.
