DENVER - The Regis University men's basketball team (4-9) faced off against the Colorado State Pueblo ThunderWolves (3-13) Wednesday night at the Regis Field House.
How it Happened: Senior guard Brian Dawson nailed the first bucket of the game, which was followed by a ThunderWolf turnover and another quick jumper from sophomore guard Will Cranston-Lown. From there though, CSU Pueblo went on a 13-3 run to make the score, 14-7, ThunderWolves. However, the Rangers kept pace and only trailed by seven at half.
In the second, Regis came out of the locker room hot by going on a 17-4 run. Then, another 10-1 run from RU made the score, 45-54, Rangers, with ten minutes left in the game. From there, Regis' high field-goal percentage put the ThunderWolves soundly away. The final score was 80-69, RU.
Game Notes: Freshman Nik Atanasovs got the most playing time of his career tonight with 21 minutes on the floor. He also had a career-high in points, he scored 13. Graduate guard Troy Brady had career-highs in steals and assists, with three and five, respectively. The Rangers continue to turn the scoring up in the second half. Tonight, in the first, they shot 42 percent from the field. In the second though, they shot 71 percent.
Here's what head coach Brady Bergeson had to say about tonight's performance,
"A win feels great. I don't care who it is, wins are hard to get, especially this year. We've gone through our share, or more, of trials and challenges. It feels very good and I'm very proud of our kids. The second half that they put together on both sides of the ball, I thought was tremendous. We were tough defensively and we tightened up our game plan a little bit at half time and they executed much better defensively,"
"Same thing offensively, I thought we settled a little bit in the first half for shots that were OK, and we passed on those in the second half and we got better ones. I think the numbers will reflect that, especially Brian's (Dawson) numbers, you mentioned 30 points and he's a guy that can do that and he's done it a number of times this year. Our guys are working for him and he's a work horse, not only did he do that offensively, but he was also guarding their best player who also plays nearly 40 minutes a game and just trying to do everything he could to slow him down as well. So, a huge effort from Dawson on both sides of the ball, and from his teammates as well"
Up Next for the Rangers: With the final home game for Regis in the books, the team looks ahead to a rematch with CSU Pueblo, this time in Pueblo, Colo.. Tip is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 26 and you can watch it by clicking here.
