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"They competed better and played harder," coach Dan Burreson said about the Dodgeville boys basketball team after they turned back his Mineral Point squad 52-40 in a non-conference game Tuesday.
Dodgeville coach Ryan Bohnsack saw it was time to put the clamps on Pointer guard Dakota Poad who helped the Pointers open a 15-9 lead in the first quarter with eight points on a pair of threes and a two pointer. After the senior sharpshooter drilled another three in the second quarter the clamps tightened and Poad managed only one basket the rest of the game.
The entire Dodgeville team bought into the work Kristian Haag and Austyn Whitlatch put into stopping Poad and held the Pointers to five points the final frame.
Under the basket the Dodger duo of Jake Bechen and sophomore Dillon Shaffer were neutralizing Pointer premier big man Trent Steffes, holding him to seven points. Bechen responded with 12 points on the offensive end to support junior guard Nick Crowley's 15.
Poad's 13 points took scoring honors for Mineral Point.
"We let them be the aggressor and you can't win doing that," Burreson said.
Bright spots for the Pointers were the play off the bench by freshman Alex Schmitz who put up eight points and Trevor Wendhausen who chipped in six points on a pair of three pointers.
Burreson also said Poad got the Pointers going and that Ian Ewers played some good defense on Crowley.
"We are a better team than we played tonight," Burreson said. "It is a process and we will get back at it and get better. We have seen some good and some bad in our two games and we can build on the good."
"We had a good third quarter and held them to five in the fourth," Bohnsack said. "We did a good job stopping Poad after his early success and got a real team effort defensively to hold down their offense. Point has a nice team and will have a fine season."
"Our seniors stepped up for us tonight and we had several contributions. Evan Dowling had a nice game off the bench," Bohnsack said.
Bohnsack said the Dodgers will be working on valuing the basketball more.
"We turned the ball over too much," he said. "We need to take better care of it if we are going to be successful."
The Pointers are at Southwestern Thursday then host River Ridge Saturday and Monticello Tuesday.
The Dodgers are at Wisconsin Heights Friday and host Evansville Tuesday.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
MP 15 8 12 5 40
D 9 16 17 10 52
BOX SCORE
MINERAL POINT 40: (fg-ft-tp) Staver 1-0-3, White 0-0-0, Poad 5-0-13, Benish 0-0-0, Ewers 1-0-2, Radtke 0-0-0, Schmitz 2-2-8, Wendhausen 2-0-6, Heimsoth 0-0-0, James 0-1-1, Steffes 3-1-7, Schultz 0-0-0, Lindholm 0-0-0 Totals 14-4/9-40 Fouls-11
DODGEVILLE 52: Digman 0-0-0, Larson 3-0-6, Hottmann 0-0-0, Whitlach 2-0-4, Bramlett 2-0-4, Crowley 7-0-15, Haag 3-1-7, Forsch 0-0-0, Bechen 5-2-12, Fingerson 1-0-2, Rohowetz 0-0-0, Olson 0-0-0, Shaffer 1-0-2 Totals 24-3/4-52 Fouls-11
3 point goals
MP-Poad 3, Schmitz 2, Wendhausen 2, Staver 1
D-Crowley 1
JV-Dodgeville won.
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