Box Score
Ankeny, IA - The #1 seeded Grace Tigers downed #8 Moody Bible 98-79 Thursday night in the first round of the NCCAA DII National Tournament.Â
Though the first half was far from perfect from the Tigers, they held a 41-28 lead at the break and seemed to be in full control to coast to the win in the final 20 minutes. Moody had different plans, catching fire midway through the half to trim the Tiger lead all the way to 4 points. The backcourt trio of
Jared Bradford,
Matt Jensen, and
Joe Dekkenga then went on a scoring spree to help the Tigers pull away from the Archers for the 19 point victory.
"Give Moody credit, they came ready to play and we were not ready," commented Head Coach
Gary Bailey. "I think it was a good wake up for us for tomorrow."
The Tigers outrebounded the Archers 44-18, but perhaps the largest contributing factor in the win was the bench play from the Tigers, as their bench outscored the Archers 39-0. Bradford led the Tigers with 26 points, while shooting 6-8 from 3 point range. Dekkenga and Jensen followed with 16 points, Dekkenga shooting a perfect 5-for-5 from the field on the day. The 16 points were career highs for both Dekkenga and Jensen. Sophomore
Grant Garrison pulled down a team-high 8 rebounds.
"Joe gave us a great lift off of the bench tonight," added Coach Bailey.
Tomorrow's highly anticipated tip versus the defending National Champion, Randall University, will be at 7:30 pm CT.
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