Jones, Jimmies win in Dickinson

The night of Dec. 2, a few hours after the Jamestown College men’s basketball team lost its first Dakota Athletic Conference game of the season to Dickinson State, Jimmies head coach Matt Murken sat in bed, unable to sleep.

DSU’s Tevin Hurd had made a go-ahead shot in the closing seconds and the game-winning opportunity Murken had given to junior Byron Jones came up short as time expired.

“I texted Byron at 11 p.m. at night and said, ‘I’ll take that shot from you and have the ball in your hands with that situation any time,’” Murken said. “He said, ‘What shot coach? I’m already on to the next game.’ He waited for a while to get one and it happened to be against (DSU) again.”

Jones got his chance for redemption Sunday night at Scott Gymnasium when he shook a DSU defender, drove the left side of the lane and floated in the game-winning shot with 7 seconds left to help the Jimmies to a 68-66 Dakota Athletic Conference victory.

“I’m just happy that coach had the trust in me to put the ball in my hands,” Jones said.

The Blue Hawks had their opportunity at a game-winning shot, but couldn’t the one it wanted settling for a 25-foot 3-pointer from sophomore forward Matt Lee, who airballed the long jumper.

It was a tough end for the Blue Hawks (13-10, 6-3 DAC), who got on Lee’s shoulders and fought back from a 14-point second-half deficit to tie the game at 64 with 3:41 remaining.

“Look at what our kids did,” DSU head coach Ty Orton said. “They got in a rut and they fought, clawed and bit their way out of it. I am so proud of these guys. That’s a great team we played.”

Jamestown quickly expanded on a 39-34 halftime lead, going inside to senior forward C.J. Peeters early and junior guard Chris Lawrence from deep to build a 56-42 lead with a little more than 5 minutes into the second half.

But the Blue Hawks wouldn’t go away.

Not at home and certainly not in a crucial conference game.

“You play Dickinson State, you know it’s going to be a battle from the jump ball until there’s zeros on the clock,” Murken said. “They’re going to keep competing.”

Lee scored 13 of his game-high 27 points during a 22-8 run over a span of 10 minutes that tied the game and set up a furious fight to the finish.

“Coach had confidence in me to just keep running a little high screen and they couldn’t stop it so we stuck with it and it worked out for a while,” said Lee, who also had eight rebounds and five steals.

It was a bittersweet game for DSU senior Nathan Lebsock, who moved into second place on school’s all-time scoring charts.

Lebsock had 20 points, passing Tony Wald and increasing his career point total to 1,493. He passed Wald on his third shot of the game, a very Lebsock-esque contested drive to the basket.

“It would have felt a lot better with a win, that’s for sure,” Lebsock said.

Peeters was 9 of 12 from the field and had 20 points and eight boards to lead Jamestown (18-5, 7-3 DAC). Chris Lawrence added 14 points and six rebounds, Mark Hoge had 12 points and Jones added 11 points.

Lawrence was big down the stretch, hitting a pair of free throws to give Jamestown a two-point lead with 3:04 to play. Likewise junior forward Travis Burley, who had just four points but made a shot in the lane off Hoge’s missed free throw with 59 seconds remaining to give Jamestown a 68-66 advantage.

“I really thought we showed some toughness tonight,” Murken said.

JAMESTOWN COLLEGE (18-5, 7-2 DAC): Travis Burley 2-5 0-0 4, C.J. Peeters 9-12 1-2 20, Chris Lawrence 4-7 5-5 14, Byron Jones 4-4 3-4 11, B.J. Mertens 0-3 0-0 0, Jacquez Williams 1-9 0-0 3, Mark Hoge 5-10 0-1 12, Brandon Robbins 1-1 0-0 2, Dustin Herrmann 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 28-53 9-12 70.

DICKINSON STATE (13-10, 6-3 DAC): Matt Lee 12-17 1-5 27, Dano Fagerlund 0-1 0-0 0, Nathan Lebsock 7-13 6-6 20, Tevin Hurd 4-6 0-0 9, John Hanstad 0-3 3-5 5, Jeff Hurd 0-1 0-0 0, Brock Boos 0-3 0-0 0, Robbie Morey 0-1 0-0 0, Derek Pauley 3-6 0-2 6, Ryan Kittleson 0-0 0-0 0, Jarek Hansen 1-3 0-0 3. Totals 27-54 10-18 68.

Halftime: JC 39-34. Total fouls: JC 20, DSU 15. 3-point goals: JC 5-20 (Peeters 1-4, Lawrence 1-1, Mertens 0-2, Williams 1-7, Hoge 2-6), DSU 4-16 (Lee 2-3, Lebsock 0-2, T. Hurd 1-2, Hanstad 0-3, Boos 0-3, Morey 0-1, Hansen 1-2). Rebounds: JC 32 (Peeters 8), DSU 29 (Lee 8). Assists: JC 11 (Peeters 3, Mertens 3), DSU 9 (Lee 4). Steals: JC 4 (four with 1), DSU 12 (Lee 5). Blocks: None. Turnovers: JC 19 (Peeters 5), DSU 17 (Lee 6).

The Dickinson Press and Jamestown Sun are both owned by Forum Communications Co.

Tags: college sports, sports, basketball, men, jimmies