Back to the Elite Eight goes the Dodge City men's basketball after claiming a 77-74 win over the #4 seed Moberly in Sweet 16 of the NJCAA Division I National Tournament.
The Conquistadors improve to 25-9 on the season with the win and are now 2-0 at the National Tournament this year returning to the Elite Eight for the second straight year. The win moves the Conqs into the Elite Eight where they will play #12 seed Tallahassee who beat #3 seed Salt Lake 94-93 in overtime.
The Conqs jumped up early working to an 8-2 lead over the first three and half minutes with DJ Jones tallying six of the first eight points. The lead would hold serve until Moberly mounted a 7-0 run to grab the lead for the first time in the game at 21-20 with 9:20 left to go in the first half. That run was stretched into a 12-0 spurt by Moberly as they went up by five points at 29-24 with only 5:46 left in the first half. The Conqs would even the game back up at 33-33 after a Jacobi Sebock dunk and Chris Robinson layup and then finished the first half strong outscoring Moberly 14-2 over the final 4:42 to lead 40-33 at the half.
The lead would find its way to double figures early in the second half as the Conqs pushed ahead further but Moberly would not go away tightening up the contest to a three-point game by the under-10 media timeout. Moberly then drew with one and even tied the game at 65-65 with 4:22 left. Down the stretch, the Conqs would hold the lead and a Sebock bucket with 43.6 seconds left gave the Conqs a three-point lead. With only 4.9 seconds left Moberly had the ball in the halfcourt and would get a three-point opportunity off but it would fall short and the Conqs secured the 77-74 win.
Conqs finished the game shooting 40.8% while holding Moberly to under 40% shooting at 39.7% and the Conqs controlled the boards outrebounding Moberly 54-36. The ball distribution was strong for the Conqs also with 19 assists on 29 field goals.
Jason Edwards paced the Conqs with 31 points on 12-23 shooting including 5-8 from three-point range adding five rebounds to his day. Sebock finished with nearly a double-double posting 13 points and nine rebounds, while DJ Jones chipped in 14 points on 4-8 shooting and 5-6 from the free throw line. Cam Malray added nine points and a career-high 17 rebounds, while Robinson had 10 points with five rebounds and five points.
The Conqs move into the Elite Eight and will take on #12 seed Tallahassee at 6:00 pm on Thursday, March 23rd in Hutchinson.
Original source can be found here.
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