DUBUQUE, Iowa - (2/23/23) Thursday evening, the University of Dubuque Spartans men's basketball team hosted the Coe College Kohawks in the semifinals of the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) tournament. Coming in as the #2 seed, the Spartans received a first round bye. Meanwhile the Kohawks entered the tournament as #6 seed and knocked off the # 3 seed Nebraska Wesleyan Tuesday night in Lincoln. During the regular season, the Spartans and the Kohawks split the series with each team winning on the road. Thus, setting the stage for an intense semifinal matchup. After tonight, the Spartans season came to a close as the Kohawks defeated the Spartans 78-73.
In the first five minutes of the game, the Spartans jumped out to a 10-7 lead as
Keegan Zimmerman continued his hot shooting from deep as he buried two threes. The next few possessions both teams traded buckets before the Kohawks responded with an 8-0 run to take an eight point lead (22-14) with 10:54 to go in the half. After hitting three consecutive threes, the Kohawks extended their largest lead of the game to 17 (40-23) with a few minutes remaining. At the end of the half, the Spartans trailed by 13 (44-31). The Spartans shot 40% from the field in the first half, while the Kohawks shot an outstanding 53% from the field and 61% from beyond the arc.
The Spartans slowly started to chip away at the Kohawks lead as they cut the deficit to seven (48-41) after
Trent DeVries connected on a three. Senior,
Dylan Anderson provided big minutes off the bench for the Spartans as he grabbed an offensive board after a missed layup from
Sam Kilburg and scored on the second chance putback. On the ensuing possession, Anderson drained a three, forcing the Kohawks into a timeout as their lead was slimmed to four (52-48) with 11:08 left. Over the next seven minutes, the Kohawks could not increase their lead to double digits as the Spartans continued to battle remaining in striking distance. With 3:25 left in the game, the Spartans made it a one possession game as Zimmerman hit a three closing with in two points as the Spartans trailed 66-64. The next trip down, Zimmerman answered with another three bringing the Spartans all the way back from 17 down to one (68-67). The Spartans could not grab the lead as the Kohawks responded with a three of their own and then iced the game from the free throw line. The Spartans battled until the last second, but in the end they fell to the Kohawks by a score of 78-73.
Four Spartans finished the night in double figures.
Keegan Zimmerman led the charge with 18 points on 5-8 from beyond the arc, followed by
Brock Simon with 13, while
Sam Kilburg chipped in 11 points and six assists.
Dylan Anderson scored 10 of the 17 bench points for the Spartans and also hauled in a team leading eight rebounds. Overall both teams shot 43% from the field but one of the differences came from the free throw line. The Spartans struggled from the charity stripe as shot 11-21 (52%) while the Kohawks shot 17-21 (81%).
As the Spartans wrap up the 2022-2023 season, they finished with a 19-7 record overall and 12-4 in A-R-C play.
