Nov. 21, 2008

Final Stats

ADRIAN, Mich. - Sophomore Dwight VanHoesen calmly stroked a three-pointer from the left wing in front of his bench as time expired on Friday night sending the Bulldogs into overtime against Marygrove at the John Dawson Tournament. The two teams were tied 66-66 after the triple and then Adrian dominated in overtime for a 79-72 win improving to 2-1 overall.

The guard play was very good all night as VanHoesen scored 16 points, Michael Staley scored a season-high 28 points and Desmond Young scored 26 points for the Bulldogs. The trio had 70 of Adrian's 79 points on the night. Matt Wayne had six points, Nate Cassidy added two and Tom Zimnicki added one point.

Adrian had their biggest lead of nine points with 9:10 left in the first half. Adrian went on a 10-3 run over a four-minute span which put them ahead of the Mustangs 25-16 after a Cassidy jumper. Marygrove responded with a 9-0 spurt to tie the game at 25-25 with 5:20 left in the opening half. Marygrove led 39-36 at the break as the team's were tied eight times in the first half. Adrian shot 36.1 percent while the Mustangs shot 50 percent from the floor. Young had 20 points in the first half to pace Adrian's offense. He was also 8-for-11 from the floor in the first 20 minutes.

Marygrove led by five early in the second half but each team battled and neither team had a bigger lead than that until Adrian took a 60-55 lead with 4:45 left in regulation on a pair of Staley free throws. Nick Roberts tied the game for the 14th time at 62-62 with 2:05 remaining in regulation setting up a frantic final two minutes. Young split at the foul line to give AC a 63-62 lead with 1:10 to go. Darius Kellar missed his original shot but put back his miss to give Marygrove a 64-63 lead with 31 seconds left. Young missed a pair of shots and Adrian had to commit three fouls just to get the Mustangs into the bonus situation. Kellar was fouled with seven seconds to play and made both at the line to give Marygrove a 66-63 lead. The final play of regulation saw Staley dribble the length of the court and dish off a double-team onto the left wing where VanHoesen made his game-tying triple as the light went off.

Adrian scored 11 of the first 13 points in the extra session to secure a firm lead. Staley hit a triple to give Adrian the lead for good with 3:41 to go in the game. The Bulldogs shot just 31 percent in the second half but were 6-of-7 shooting from the field in overtime. Adrian turned up the defensive intensity in the final five minutes as the Mustangs shot just 2-of-10.

Staley was 9-of-21 and 5-of-13 from the arc with nine assists and four rebounds. Young was 10-of-24 and 6-of-8 at the foul line with nine rebounds and two assists. Marygrove had a 47-45 edge on the boards with 19 offensive rebounds for each team. Eric Johnson had a very good game for Marygrove with 17 points, 18 rebounds and four blocked shots.