DICKINSON - Dickinson State (3-7) used a balanced offensive effort, as four Blue Haws finished in double figures, to take down Rocky Mountain College, 74-65, and finish the 2022 Sam Milanovich 2-0, and the unofficial champions.
For the second consecutive day, DSU turned home court advantage into an impressive shooting effort, going 25-53 (47%) from the field for the game to outshoot RMC 47 percent to 39 percent.
Three Trey Hladky free throws started the scoring and John Evans scored his first basket of the game to put Dickinson State up 5-0 early in the first half. After a Gus Wright miss while leading 5-2, the teams traded baskets for six straight trips down the floor, with Wright and Kose Egbule keeping the Blue Hawks out in front 11-8 with scores at the rim. DSU extended their lead to 21-13 on a basket by Christian Murphy basket before a 5-0 RMC run shrunk the lead back down to three, 21-18. An old fashioned three-point play by Rocky Mountain gave them the lead, 26-25, with 6:51 left in the half, and they extended it to 29-25 on a new-school three ball a minute later for their largest lead of the game. Two Gus Wright free throws and two Hladky three-pointers later and the Blue Hawks led again, 33-31, before back-to-back buckets by John Evans stretched the DSU lead back to six, 37-31. An Evans three ball with 36 seconds left in the half was the final score of the half, making it 40-34 at the break.
The second half saw the Blue Hawks shooting cool off a bit, as they went just 2-8 from deep and 10-20 from the charity stripe, but a strong defensive effort and an advantage on the boards carried them to the win. Dickinson State took an eleven point lead on a Bradyn Palmer layup with 10:24 remaining, and led by twelve when Gus Wright scored with 7:25 left, before a 10-0 Rocky Mountain run cut the lead to just two with five minutes to go. Despite struggling from the line, the Blue Hawks knocked down eight free throws, and got a dagger shot from deep by Hladky, to pull away from the visitors from Billings, Montana to finish the weekend unbeaten.
Gus Wright led the Blue Hawks in scoring for the second day in a row scoring 14 points and pulling down a team-high seven rebounds. Hladky added 13 points and four assists, while Evans (13 points, 6 rebounds) and Egbule (11 points, 5 rebounds, 4 blocks) also gave the Blue Hawks valuable production.
"I thought our guys played awesome" said head coach Derek Selvig. "We are really clicking on offense and defensively are playing at a high level. I am super proud of their effort this weekend."
