Massive late charge falls short for DWU men in California, ending season in NAIA tourney

Mar. 15—SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — Down 22 points with less than 10 minutes left, the Dakota Wesleyan University men's basketball team was in the toughest hole of the season.

And the 14th-seeded Tigers almost dug themselves all the way out of it for an NAIA tournament first-round upset, but No. 3-seed The Master's University hung on in the final seconds for a 69-65 win at the MacArthur Center in the northern hills of the Los Angeles metro.

DWU trailed 59-37 with 9:52 left when the Tigers put together a 15-4 run to get within 11 points. TMU then scored four points in a row and DWU answered with another 13-0 run inside the final 3 minutes, including 3-pointers from Randy Rosenquist Jr. and Tampa Scott IV, plus a three-point play from Desman Botts in that span.

But Kaleb Lowery, the Mustangs' two-time NAIA All-American, closed out the game with a pair of free throws with 4 seconds left that made DWU a one-and-done squad in their first NAIA tournament in five years, capping the season at 20-10.

The Mustangs (26-5), ranked No. 8 in the final regular-season coaches' top-25 poll, will face 11th-seeded Southern Oregon at 8 p.m. Central time on Saturday night to win the four-team opening-weekend bracket. SOU won the first game 84-81 over No. 6 Montana Tech to advance.

The Tigers didn't have much going for them early in the game, struggling to muster much offense against a top-15 scoring offense in the country that allowed 66 points per game entering Friday. DWU was down 15-5 with 7 minutes elapsing and were shooting 2-for-11.

By halftime, DWU trailed 40-22 and was held to 33.3% shooting in the first 20 minutes. They were also decimated on the glass by a 30-11 margin, with TMU also grabbing 12 offensive rebounds to surpass DWU's entire rebounding output.

In the second half, DWU was 16-for-27 from the field and hit 5-of-10 3-pointers. The charge was led in part by Botts, the 6-foot-4 freshman and native Californian who played only in nine games prior to Friday this season and averaged 2.8 points per game. He scored a career-high 11 points on 5-for-5 shooting, all in the second half to help spur the Tigers, who got 10 points from Rosenquist after being held to only two points in the first 20 minutes. The inside play was also more of a stalemate in terms of rebounds, points in the paint and second-chance scoring over the final 20 minutes.

For DWU, Scott finished with 17 points and seven assists and played all 40 minutes. Rosenquist finished with 12 points and the Tigers had 11 each from Botts and Determan. Samuel Aslesen had seven points and six rebounds for DWU. But the Tigers finished 10-for-20 on free throws in the game, with uncharacteristic struggles at the free-throw line that proved costly at game's end.

The Mustangs had 20 points and 12 rebounds from Lowery, 12 points from Quincy Phillips and 10 from Jaren Nafarrete. TMU, which was 24-9 and reached the round of 16 last season, finished with a 50-25 edge in rebounding and 19-4 margin in second-chance scoring. But the Mustangs, shot 33.3% in the second half and did not score a field goal for the final 4 minutes and 49 seconds while DWU made its charge.

The Tigers were making their first national tournament appearance since 2020, and their first since the NAIA moved to the one-division, 64-team national bracket.

The Master's 69, Dakota Wesleyan men 65

Dakota Wesleyan (20-10): Tampa Scott IV 7-16 1-2 17 Randy Rosenquist Jr. 4-8 2-4 12 Jakob Dobney 1-7 1-2 3 Samuel Aslesen 2-5 3-6 7 Blaze Lubbers 2-4 0-0 4 Anthony Riggans 0-1 0-0 0 Ethan Determan 3-5 2-4 11 Steele Morgan 0-0 0-0 0 Desman Botts 5-5 1-2 11 Totals 24-51 10-20 65

The Master's (26-5): Kaleb Lowery 8-16 3-3 20 Deondre Earley 1-2 0-0 2 Kendall Moore 2-10 0-0 5 Miles Mendes 2-2 0-0 4 Caden Starr 2-4 0-0 6 Tiago Soares 1-2 0-0 3 Quincy Phillips 6-16 0-2 12 Jaren Nafarrete 3-9 2-2 10 Caden Devries 0-0 0-0 0 Deaken Stangl 3-7 1-2 7 Totals 26-68 6-9 69

Halftime: TMU 40-22. 3-point shots: DWU 7-15 (Determan 3-4, Scott 2-5, Rosenquist 2-3, Dobney 0-1, Lubbers 0-1, Riggans 0-1), TMU 7-25 (Nafarrete 2-7, Starr 2-4, Soares 1-1, Lowery 1-3, Moore 1-5, Phillips 0-4, Stangl 0-1). Rebounds: DWU 25 (Aslesen 6), TMU 50 (Lowery 12, Phillips 8). Total fouls: DWU 15, TMU 20. Fouled out: Mendes. Assists: DWU 14 (Scott 7), TMU 21 (Moore 7, Earley 5). Turnovers: DWU 10, TMU 12. Blocks: DWU 7 (Rosenquist 2, Dobney 2), TMU 0. Steals: DWU 5 (Determan 2), TMU 8 (Earley 3, Moore 3)

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