JAMESTOWN — In a battle for first place in the GPAC, the No. 11-ranked University of Jamestown showed up and Northwestern College did not. The Jimmies scored 19 points off 22 Raiders turnovers in a 78-55 win on Saturday, Jan. 28, at Harold Newman Arena.
“We had too many turnovers that’s probably the big thing, we had 22 turnovers for the game,” Raiders head coach Kris Korver said. “We want to be at 10 or under. Jamestown takes 73 shots and we take 56 that’s a big discrepancy and they shot it really well and they got different guys going, (Will Cordes) was really efficient tonight, he played a great game. We didn’t take care of the basketball like we needed to and their kids just played really well.”
Midway through the first half, the Jimmies (19-3, 11-3) had a game-changing sequence where Mason Walters hit a jumper to push the lead out to 29-15, with 7:05 to go in the first half, drawing a Raiders (16-6, 9-5) timeout. Out of the timeout, the Raiders’ Matt Onken drove into the paint and had his shot blocked out of bounds by Walters. On the ensuing play, the Jimmies forced a shot clock violation and then Walters hit a floater to push the lead out to 31-15 with 6:10 to go in the first half.
“It was huge because all that stuff is momentum,” Jimmies head coach Danny Neville said. “Any time we’re making plays, getting blocks, hitting shots, the momentum seems like it’s shifted to us. If we can keep that momentum for longer periods of time we’ll be good.”
Early in the second half, the Jimmies lead ballooned to its largest point when Will Cordes hit a jumper to push the lead out to 58-32 with 14:07 to go in the game. The closest the Raiders got from there was within 16 points at 71-55 with 1:44 to go in the game. The lopsided margin let the Jimmies go down their bench as 16 players made an appearance and 11 of them scored at least one point.
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“I think we trust everyone on the team,” Jimmies guard Cole Woodford said. “We know when (the bench players) go in there they’re going to do everything they can to follow through and get us the win as well. So, we all trust each other.”
The win pushes the Jimmies' winning streak out to seven games and the team into first place in the GPAC. During the winning streak, the Jimmies have outscored their opponents 578-474.
“ think this isn’t our best, we can get better,” Neville said. “We can have certain guys do different things, when we’re getting everybody playing at their best that’s when we’re really going to take off. Right now, it’s just because of defense and because of our team togetherness.”
The Jimmies have a quick turnaround as they play again at 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 30, when they host Morningside.
NWC 55, UJ 78
NWC: 23 32–55
UJ: 43 35–78
Points leaders:
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NWC: Matt Onken 14, Craig Sterk 12, Dillon Carlson 8
UJ: Will Cordes 19, Cole Woodford 13, Mason Walters 13, Marc Kjos 12
Assists leaders:
NWC: Sterk 4, Kaleb Booth 3, Grant DeMeulnaere 2
UJ: Kjos 5, Walters 4, Cordes 1, Tallon Klatt 1
Leading rebounders:
NWC: Sterk 8, Zach LaFave 7, Dillon Carlson 5
UJ: Walters 9, Kjos 6, Jimmy Llinas 6, Reid Gastner 3
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