UD Closes Out Daytona Beach Shootout With Blowout Win
Dec 19, 2018
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The University of Dubuque men’s basketball team picked up their third straight win after beating Marian University 78-59 in the Daytona Beach Shootout.
UD’s Marcus McDaniel did not waste any time getting into the action on Wednesday afternoon, scoring the first six points of the game and helping UD race out to an 8-0 lead in the game’s opening 3:47 and the Spartans never looked back.
In an up-tempo first half, both teams had runs of their own. After Marian cut the early UD lead down to three with 12:47 left in the first half, a Justin Smith layup helped push the lead back to five and sparked a UD run that would lead to a 13 point lead with just under six minutes to go before halftime. Marian chipped away at the UD lead over the final five and a half minutes of the first half and got back within five points by halftime.
In the first three minutes of the second half, Marian scored six straight points to cut the UD lead to one, the closest they had been since opening tip.
Just as they did on Tuesday afternoon the Spartans used late rally’s to pull away from Marian, going on a 12-2 run over a 5:11 span that was capped by a Mitch Burger three pointer to get the Spartans ahead by 12 points. Over the final ten minutes of the game, the Spartans slowly built up their lead to as many as 19 to close out the victory.
11 different Spartans found the scoring column on Wednesday afternoon, led by Marcus McDaniel with 15 points, with 11 of those coming in the first half. Mitch Burger and Jason Barker both reached double figures as well with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Burger also dished out a team-high three assists.
The Spartans made a living at the free throw line against Marian, getting to the charity stripe 24 times, sinking 19 of them for nearly 80%. For the second time in as many games in the Daytona Beach Shootout, UD dominated on the glass, winning the rebound margin 46-34 overall and 19-9 on the offensive glass. The 19 offensive rebounds translated to 20 second half points.
UD capitalized off of Marian’s 19 turnovers by scoring 22 points off of turnovers. The Spartan bench stepped up in a big way, scoring 41 points.
The Spartans return home on Friday, December 28th when they host Clarke at 3:00 p.m. in the Stoltz Sports Center
