Tech, Western win at Classic

Both Montana Tech and the University of Montana-Western showed second-half improvement Sunday to close out the St. James Copper Cage Classic at the HPER Complex.

The Montana Tech Orediggers claimed a 61-59 win over surging Dickinson St. after trailing 29-20 at the half. UM-Western pulled through with an 80-66 victory over Walla Walla University with an inspired second-half effort.

Tech managed to win despite losing starting guard Shea Bradshaw in the opening 20 seconds of play to a shoulder injury.

UM-Western 80, Walla Walla 66 With leading scorer Gus McDonald on the bench nursing an injury, the UM-Western Bulldogs didn’t score 10 points in the first 10 minutes of play against Walla Walla University.

The Bulldogs were able to recover and take a 30-29 lead at halftime. UM-Western coach Steven Keller said it was tough to adjust with a short bench and with a key player out.

“It took us awhile to adjust without Gus,” UM-Western coach Steven Keller said.

The Bulldogs made a rally with help from sophomore standout Layne Glaus. Glaus went on to pour in 27 points on the day. Most of his points, 14, were scored from the free-throw line.

Daniel Creech was huge in the paint as he put in 14 and had 12 rebounds.

“Layne was awesome,” Keller said. “Creech had a double-double and that’s what we need out of him. We needed a win.” UM-Western spent most of the game at the free-throw line as Walla Walla forced 20 fouls in the first half alone. All together the Bulldogs tried 44 times from the charity stripe and struck gold See CLASSIC, Page B4 Classic ...

32 times.

With McDonald out, each UM-Western player that played either scored or had a rebound in the team’s second win.

“Everybody contributed,” Keller said. “We were at our low point last night, but we stuck together.” Walla Walla University was led by Josua Henderson and Chris Purdom with 14 and 13 points. Purdom also had five assists.

UM-Western takes to the road for North Dakota next week.

WALLA WALLA (3-5) Gerard Dauphin 3-5 0-0 6, Aaron Linfoot 2-7 2-4 6, Ryan Wilson 4-7 0-4 8, Brett Weisner 2-5 2-2 8, Chris Purdom 3-8 5-6 13, Trent Wade 0-1 0-0 0, Jonny Long 0-1 2-2 2, Gabe Cuny 2-3 0-0 5, Josua Henderson 5-11 0-0 14, Dave Bowen 1-3 2-2 4. Totals 22-51 13-20 66.

UM-WESTERN (2-5) Garrett Fink 2-9 4-6 8, Daniel Creech 5-7 2-3 14, Dovydas Retkus 2-2 1-2 5, Layne Glaus 6-12 14-18 27, Chad Myers 5-11 0-0 13, Aaron Sims 1-1 8-10 10, Zach Pitts 0-2 1-3 1, Bob Neiman 0-2 2-2 2. Totals 21-46 32-44 80.

Half score — Western 30, WW 29. 3-point goals — WW 9-21 (Dauphin 0-1, Weisner 2-3, Purdom 2-5, Wade 0-1, Cuny 1-2, Henderson 4-9), Western 6-15 (Fink 0-2, Creech 2-2, Glaus 1-2, Myers 3-8, Pittz 1-1). Rebounds — WW 30 (Wilson 8), Western 35 (Creech 12). Fouls — WW 32, Western 22. Assists — WW 11 (Purdom 5), Western 9 (Glaus 4). Turnovers — WW 18, Western 12. Blocks — WW 0, Western 2 (Fink, Creech). Steals — WW 4, Western 6 (Myers 2, Sims 2).

Tech 61, Dickinson St. 59 You couldn’t have scripted a worse beginning for the Orediggers.

Twenty seconds into play, Shea Bradshaw went down with a shoulder injury, then Dickinson St. took a 4-0 lead as Tech couldn’t even manage a field goal attempt in its first two possessions.

Tech recovered and tied the game up at 9s midway through the first half. After giving up a 29-20 lead at halftime, the Orediggers finally found a way in the second half.

The Orediggers struggled to recover in the first five minuts of the latter half, but started to come on thanks to back-to-back 3-pointers from Dusan Veselinovic and Collin Fehr.

After Fehr’s trey, Tech really went on a roll forcing the ball to post Dirk Anderson, who tallied 10 points in a 12-4 Tech run. The ’Diggers either forced fouls or found a shot on several consecutive possessions to gain momentum.

“We kept pounding down low,” Tech coach Nate Larson said. “We either got a foul or a shot.

“The middle 10 minutes (of the second half) we shined defensively.” Thanks to Anderson and Fehr, the Orediggers took a 54-46 lead with two minutes remaining in play. Dickinson didn’t get to within two points until the final seconds of the game.

“I’m proud of the team for gutting it out,” Larson said. “Dickinson is physical. We controlled the glass and that was another huge key.” Ervin Belton, Nigel Sims and Steve Mitchell led the Bluehawks’ offensive attack with double-digit points. Mitchell was also a team leader in rebounds and assists.

Tech’s offense was led by the ever-accurate Dusan Veselinovic, who tallied 21 points. He went 8-for-9 on free throw attempts.

Anderson pumped in 12 points and went perfect on six tries from the charity stripe. Former Corvallis standout Fehr was huge in the second half with three 3-point buckets.

Tony Trudnowski didn’t have as many opportunities as Saturday, but still managed eight points despite early foul trouble.

Coach Larson said afterwards that he was proud of the way his squad responded.

“People stepped up when Shea went down,” he said.

Tech has an exhibition against Boise State University in Bronco territory on Wednesday.

DICKINSON STATE Steve Mitchell 5-8 0-1 11, Ervin Belton 6-9 1-4 13, Fred Schehtinga 2-5 1-2 5, Jeremy Mallard 3-8 0-0 9, Sean Burnham 2-4 2-2 6, Ryan Bogner 0-2 0-0 0, Julian Larry 0-1 0-0 0, Ryan Ernst 0-0 0-0 0, Brian Lebsock 0-1 3-4 3, Nigel Sims 4-8 2-5 12, Mark Versen 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-47 9-18 59.

MONTANA TECH (3-5) Dusan Veselinovic 6-15 8-9 21, Dirk Anderson 3-7 6-6 12, Jeramie Hopson 1-5 2-2 5, Shea Bradshaw 0-0 0-0 0, Tony Trudnowski 1-5 5-6 8, Stephen Thomas 0-2 2-4 2, Collin Fehr 3-5 0-0 9, Ivan Sljivar 0-2 0-0 0, Jake Williams 1-4 2-2 4. Totals 15-45 19-25 61.

Half score — DSU 29, Tech 20. 3-point goals — DSU 6-14 (Mitchell 1-1, Mallard 3-7, Burnham 0-1, Sims 2-4, Verson 0-1), Tech 6-19 (Veselinovic 1-5, Anderson 0-2, Hopson 1-1, Trudnowski 1-4, Thomas 0-1, Fehr 3-5, Sljivar 0-1). Rebounds — DSU 28 (Mitchell 7), Tech 35 (Anderson 11). Fouls — DSU 24, Tech 22. Assists — DSU 12 (Mitchell 3), Tech 9 (Williams 4). Turnovers — DSU 12, Tech 15. Blocks — DSU 0, Tech 2 (Veselinovic, Anderson). Steals — DSU 8 (Schehtinga 2, Mallard 2, Sims 2), Tech 6 (Trudnowski 2, Williams 2).