LINCOLN, Neb – In the much anticipated battle between two nationally-ranked teams, No. 1 Nebraska Wesleyan defended their home court and extended their school record winning streak to 26 games with a 89-71 victory over #20 Loras College in American Rivers men's basketball action on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 5) in front of a good crowd at Snyder Arena.
Playing without leading scorer
Nate Schimonitz and backcourt mate
Jack Hiller who were out with injury, the Prairie Wolves still were able come out on top. NWU improves their season record to 13-0 and 4-0 in conference play, while the Duhawks fall to 11-3 and 3-2.
The first half was tight through the first 15 minutes with the largest lead by either team getting to six points. With just under five minutes left in the first half, Loras made basket to cut the lead to three at 31-28.
From there, the Prairie Wolves went on a run ending the half on a 16-5 run to take a 14-point lead into halftime. Three different NWU players (
Cooper Cook,
Nate Bahe,
Ryan Garver) nailed 3-pointers in the final four minutes of the half to send the Prairie Wolves into the locker room with momentum.
To start the second half, neither team was able to muster up any offense as the nobody scored until the 16:34 mark when Loras got a basket. The Duhawks scored the first seven points of the second half to cut the lead down to seven points.
NWU went 6:06 to start the second half without a basket until
Dylan Dirks broke the drought. Dirks hit a fast break 3-pointer on the next 3-pointer to get the lead back up to 12 points.
Loras battled back and cut the lead to six points with 12:01 left, but that was as close as they would get. NWU went on a 12-2 run over the next four minutes to get ahead 64-48 at the 8:00 minute mark. They would remain ahead by double figures the rest of the second half.
The Prairie Wolves used only seven players in the game with their two starters sidelined. As a team NWU shot 47.5 percent from the field and hit only 6-22 from 3-point range.
Both teams entered the game as two of the top 3-point shooting teams in the conference, but they were cold on Saturday. Loras hit 5-31 from long range for 16.1 percent and shot 35.1 percent total from the floor.
Ryan Garver was a warrior for the Prairie Wolves on Saturday playing all 40 minutes. Garver scored a team-high 25 points with seven assists, six rebounds and three steals.
All five NWU starters finished in double figures.
Cooper Cook posted his first double-double of the year with 20 points and 12 rebounds.
Nate Bahe just missed a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds to go along with six assists.
In his first start of the year,
Dylan Dirks had 13 points and
Clay Reimers finished with 11 points before fouling out.
Jordan Boyd led Loras with 14 points, while Cole Navigato and Jordan Matthews came off the bench to also reach double figures.
Nebraska Wesleyan is next in action on Wednesday night (Jan. 9) at Simpson College, the place where they suffered their last loss.
