DUBUQUE, Iowa – The University of Dubuque men's basketball team faced the Loras College Duhawks for the first time of two regular season meetings this season on Wednesday night. Tonight's match-up would take place at Loras College on Lillis court in front of a packed house. The league leading Duhawks would give the Spartans all they could handle tonight as they win the first of two rivalry games 86-74.
Senior guard,
Brock Simon would get the scoring started for the Spartans early as he knocked down a triple on the opening possession and
Josh Hammer would answer with his own triple the next time down the court to jump out to a quick 6-2 lead in the opening minutes of the cross-town rivalry. The Duhawks would have answers of their own as they were able to take a 12-10 lead with 12:53 remaining in the first half. The Duhawks were able to extend their lead to 26-19 off a 6-0 forcing the Spartans to take a timeout.
Out of the timeout
Sam Kilburg would get a steal as he threw it up for
Keegan Zimmerman to lay the ball up over the rim. The Spartans would then force yet another turnover which led to a Kilburg three-pointer to trim the Duhawks lead to two 26-24. The Duhawks would use an 8-2 run at 34-26 before Zimmerman would knock down a much need three stopping the Duhawks run. However, the Duhawks would continue to extend their lead even further to 42-31 at the half.
The pace would pick up in the second half as expected with the Spartans making a run to open the half, but Loras answered right back and brought their lead to 55-42 with 14:12 remaining. The Spartans would go on a 11-4 run over the course of the next three minutes to pull closer at 59-53. The Spartans trailed 67-63 with 6:54 left, but the Duhawks used yet another run to extend their lead to 11 with 4:49 remaining. On back-to-back possessions by the Spartans, Zimmerman and Snyder would each knock down a three to cut the Duhawks lead to 76-70 with 3:06 remaining. The Duhawks would be able to answer down the stretch to defeat the Spartans in the end.
Zimmerman led the Spartans tonight with 23 points on 6-11 shooting and making 8-10 from the charity stripe.
Bryce Prochaska added 16 points on 7-10 shooting including two threes. Kilburg dished out seven assists and had three steals.
The Spartans shot 25-56 (44.6%) from the floor in the loss. The Spartans struggled from the free throw line making only 12 of their 22 attempts. The Duhawks controlled the boards outrebounding the Spartans 39-18. The Spartans won the points off turnovers battle with the Duhawks 23-14.
The Spartans moved to 10-5 overall and 3-3 in A-R-C play.
Up Next
The Spartans will be on the road over the weekend as they take on the Simpson College Storm in Indianola, Iowa on Saturday, January 14 at 4:00 p.m.
