End of a Deam Season
03/11/07
By Justin Bryant, IWU
Sports Info
POINT LOOKOUT, MO—After a quick start, the
tenth seeded Indiana Wesleyan University men’s
basketball team fell behind in the second half and
couldn’t fully rebound losing to the second seeded
MidAmerica Nazarene University 77-68 Saturday
afternoon in the quarterfinals of the NAIA DII
National Tournament.
The Wildcats (30-5) controlled the first fifteen minutes of the ball game behind the play of DeJovaun Sawyer-Davis, who finished with 22 points.
Sawyer-Davis scored 14 points on five of eight shooting including two for three from behind the 3-point line to help IWU to a 31-20 lead when MidAmerica called timeout with five minutes left in the first half.
“In warm-ups I felt pretty good (shooting),” said Sawyer-Davis who finished with a team-high 22 points. “I noticed in their other games they didn’t guard on the outside. They didn’t come out and guard me so I just shot the ball.”
After the timeout, MidAmerica (32-2) allowed only two more IWU buckets before mounting an 8-0 run to cut the IWU lead to 35-33 at halftime and steal the momentum.
“It was still positive,” Wildcats’ coach Greg Tonagel said about the attitude in the locker room. “We still talked about who was winning this ball game but it was just a mental adjustment we needed to make and say ‘Look we’re up. Let’s go back out there and play.’
“Momentum is huge in basketball and they took it going into the half.”
The Pioneers’ momentum continued in the second half as they scored ten more points before the Wildcats found the hoop.
Pioneer guard Jacob Nellor fueled the run with two fast break lay-ups in the first half and a 3-pointer in the second half. Nellor hit five timely 3-pointers to kill IWU’s second half comeback attempts and finish with a game-high 23 points.
“We knew he (Nellor) was a shooter and we lost him,” said coach Tonagel. “Those are defensive mistakes and when you’re playing for a Final Four you can’t have those defensive mistakes.”
The Pioneers’ defense shut down IWU’s leading scorer Jon Moon, holding him to only two points. Senior Joel Tonagel was also pinned down scoring only eight points.
“Jon Moon was guarded by Jacob Nellor,” MidAmerica coach Rocky Lamar said. “We stick Jacob on whoever is their best player and we thought Jon Moon was their best player and he did a great job on him. And then Cal Kiburz guarded Tonagel. Cal is 6’9” and I think his long frame bothered (Tonagel).”
The Wildcats were able to take the lead one time in the second half at 52-51 on a Ryan Hetrick 3-pointer. But Nellor responded with a 3-pointer of his own for the Pioneers and IWU was never able to get over the hump after that.
“We hit a three to go up one,” J. Tonagel said. “But they came back and fired back which shows the championship caliber of their team to take a run by us and fight it with their own run.”
The loss marks the last game in J. Tonagel’s four-year career at IWU were he has scored more than 1,000 points and is the all-time assist leader.
“I couldn’t be more happy,” said J. Tonagel. “It is just a blessing from God to go from where we were to where we are now. It was a dream season and it would have been even sweeter dream if we would have kept on winning but it was a great year.
I couldn’t be happier with the guys I played with and it’s something I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.”
The Wildcats (30-5) controlled the first fifteen minutes of the ball game behind the play of DeJovaun Sawyer-Davis, who finished with 22 points.
Sawyer-Davis scored 14 points on five of eight shooting including two for three from behind the 3-point line to help IWU to a 31-20 lead when MidAmerica called timeout with five minutes left in the first half.
“In warm-ups I felt pretty good (shooting),” said Sawyer-Davis who finished with a team-high 22 points. “I noticed in their other games they didn’t guard on the outside. They didn’t come out and guard me so I just shot the ball.”
After the timeout, MidAmerica (32-2) allowed only two more IWU buckets before mounting an 8-0 run to cut the IWU lead to 35-33 at halftime and steal the momentum.
“It was still positive,” Wildcats’ coach Greg Tonagel said about the attitude in the locker room. “We still talked about who was winning this ball game but it was just a mental adjustment we needed to make and say ‘Look we’re up. Let’s go back out there and play.’
“Momentum is huge in basketball and they took it going into the half.”
The Pioneers’ momentum continued in the second half as they scored ten more points before the Wildcats found the hoop.
Pioneer guard Jacob Nellor fueled the run with two fast break lay-ups in the first half and a 3-pointer in the second half. Nellor hit five timely 3-pointers to kill IWU’s second half comeback attempts and finish with a game-high 23 points.
“We knew he (Nellor) was a shooter and we lost him,” said coach Tonagel. “Those are defensive mistakes and when you’re playing for a Final Four you can’t have those defensive mistakes.”
The Pioneers’ defense shut down IWU’s leading scorer Jon Moon, holding him to only two points. Senior Joel Tonagel was also pinned down scoring only eight points.
“Jon Moon was guarded by Jacob Nellor,” MidAmerica coach Rocky Lamar said. “We stick Jacob on whoever is their best player and we thought Jon Moon was their best player and he did a great job on him. And then Cal Kiburz guarded Tonagel. Cal is 6’9” and I think his long frame bothered (Tonagel).”
The Wildcats were able to take the lead one time in the second half at 52-51 on a Ryan Hetrick 3-pointer. But Nellor responded with a 3-pointer of his own for the Pioneers and IWU was never able to get over the hump after that.
“We hit a three to go up one,” J. Tonagel said. “But they came back and fired back which shows the championship caliber of their team to take a run by us and fight it with their own run.”
The loss marks the last game in J. Tonagel’s four-year career at IWU were he has scored more than 1,000 points and is the all-time assist leader.
“I couldn’t be more happy,” said J. Tonagel. “It is just a blessing from God to go from where we were to where we are now. It was a dream season and it would have been even sweeter dream if we would have kept on winning but it was a great year.
I couldn’t be happier with the guys I played with and it’s something I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.”