ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Dickinson men's basketball team struggled from the beyond the arc on Tuesday afternoon in game one of their two-game Florida swing by going 3-of-24 (12.5%) en route to suffering a 71-60 setback to the Royals of Bethel University (Minn.) at the McArthur Center on the campus of Eckerd College.
Dickinson got off to a solid start as baskets from
Isaiah Edmond,
Anthony Goeb and
Skyler Venezia gave the Devils a slim 6-4 edge with just under four minutes off the clock. Bethel answered back with a personal 7-0 run for Payton Thomsen to make it 11-6, before the trio of
Andrew Gostovich,
Luis Ruiz and
Randy Shephard returned the favor with six straight to go ahead by one 12-11. The Royals used triples by Josh Hoffman and Nick Burke to bookend a 10-2 push with
Nate Ogbu supplying the only DC bucket to leave the Red and White behind 21-14 at the halfway point of the period. After an
Aaron Bailey layup, Bethel tallied five in a row prior to layups for
David Petrusev and Goeb trimmed the gap to 26-20. The Royals then began to separate from the Devils over the final seven minutes going on a 21-11 charge with Dickinson getting baskets from the trio of Edmond, Ogbu and Petrusev to trail by a score of 47-31 through 20 minutes.
Scores by Edmond and Ogbu pulled the Red and White to within 47-35 with 63-seconds gone, but then Zach Doely, Joey Kidder, Burke and Thomsen embarked on a 10-2 push over the ensuing three minutes to advance their lead out to 57-37. Dickinson tried to battle back as
Brandon Wiercinski delivered from deep and Ogbu along with Petrusev cashed in from the painted area to cut the deficit down to 61-46 with 11:05 to play. Caden Boettcher, Doely and Thomsen extended the gap back out to 20 (68-48), before
Matt Mahoney and Ogbu sliced into the deficit slightly at 70-51 at the 14:51 mark. The Devils then made a late charge with
Cole Cosby,
Matt Smith, Gostovich and Mahoney ripping off nine straight to make it 70-60. Gabe Siler split a pair at the line with just eight ticks left to end the scoring 71-60.
Red Devil Leaders
Points - Ogbu (11), Edmond (9), Petrusev (8)
Assists - Gostovich (3), Shephard (2), Cosby and Ogbu (1)
Rebounds - Petrusev (8), Ogbu (6), Gostovich (4)
Royal Leaders
Points - Thomsen (26), Doely (15)
Assists - Doely, Kidder and Mattes (3)
Rebounds - Thomsen (6), Kidder (5), Doely (4)
Next on the Court
Dickinson (3-6) will wrap-up their visit to the Sunshine State with another 3pm tipoff tomorrow afternoon at the McArthur Center against the Golden Flyers of Nazareth University.
