DE PERE, Wis. - Winning 10 games in a row is difficult enough in Division III and the good teams always find ways to win games. That's exactly what the (RV) University of Dubuque men's basketball team has done to open the season by staying undefeated at 10-0 after a 77-64 victory over UW-Superior in the opening game of the St. Norbert Nicolet National Bank Holiday Tournament.
The Spartans trailed 16-20 at the halfway point of first half before the Spartans went on a 12-0 run capped off by a Sunday Joh layup with 5:32 remaining in the half to lead 28-20. The Spartans would continue to build their lead to their largest of the game at 43-26 before UW-Superior hit a three pointer at the buzzer for a 14 point Spartan halftime lead.
In the second half both teams would battle back in forth before UW-Superior was able to cut the Spartans lead to five at 58-53 with 8:21 remaining. The Spartans then scored the next six points to get their lead back to 11 and UW-Superior was unable to get any closer the rest of the way for the Spartan victory.
Jaylin McCants finished the game with a game-high 24 points on 9-13 shooting and 10 rebounds (four offensive). McCants has now scored 20+ points in eight of the 10 games this season.
Sam Kilburg shot 70% from the field scoring 16 points while grabbing nine rebounds.
Grady Thompson scored 12 points off the bench.
Hear from Head Coach: Robbie Sieverding
"We played a solid game tonight and did a great job on the boards but need to do a much better job taking care of the basketball. Jaylin and Sam played well and scored the ball and I thought Grady and Sunday gave us some good minutes off the bench. " Tomorrow will be a big challenge against a very strong and physical Saint Norbert team. We will need to put together a strong 40 minute game to be successful tomorrow."
The Spartans were finding the bottom of the net tonight shooting 57.1% from the field as a team including a 60% performance in the second half. The Spartans dominated the paint with 48 points in the paint compared to only 22 for UW-Superior. The Spartans were also able to outrebound Superior by 21 rebounds.
The Spartans are now 10-0 overall as they head into day two of the tournament to fac the host, St. Norbert College tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. in the Championship Game.
