Spartans Hang On To Upend Alma, 98-90
Dec 16, 2019
DUBUQUE, Iowa – The University of Dubuque men’s basketball team bounced back from their first loss of the season with a 98-90 win over Alma.
Both offense’s came out clicking, but it was the Spartans who delived the first punch of the game with a 10-0 run to jump out to a 21-9 lead in the opening six minutes of action. Alma chipped away at the UD lead and took their first lead of the game with 6:43 remaining in the first half at 29-28. The teams would trade leads for final six and a half minutes of the half and it was Alma that took the lead into the break after an and one lay-up with 35 seconds left.
Despite battling a little foul trouble in the first half, Peter Ragen still led the Spartans with 10 halftime points. In the half, Alma connected on nearly 56% of their shots, while UD made 45.5% of theirs through 20 minutes.
Ragen scored the first bucket of the second half to give the lead to UD and the Spartans never looked back, building a lead as big as 17 points at the halfway point of the second half. Alma would once again slowly chip away at this UD lead as well, getting as close as five points with just under three minutes remaining, however, UD had every answer late to hold off Alma for the 98-90 victory and improve to 6-1.
The shooting percentages flipped in the second half, this time it was the Spartans shooting nearly 55% in the half and the UD defense held Alma to just 40.5% from the field in the half.
Mitch Burger just missed out on a double-double after leading UD with 19 points and nine assists with just three turnovers in 35 minutes. Ragen wound up finishing with 18 points on 6-15 shooting and connecting on four of five from the free throw line. As a team the Spartans sank almost 80% from the charity stripe, going 19-24.
The Spartans hit the road for a pair of games this weekend beginning on Friday with a matinee at UW-Stout with a 12:30 p.m. tip.
