Hastings College Men's Basketball v. Morningside // HC Bronco Athletics
HASTINGS – The Hastings College men’s basketball team battled but lost a tough game to No. 17 Morningside 81-76 on Saturday afternoon inside Lynn Farrell Arena.
Early on it was a game of runs as both teams were a bit streaky throughout the first half but it was the Broncos with the 36-34 halftime lead.
After the teams came out and traded threes, Tyrique McMurrin drained on of his two three pointers to give Hastings a 42-37 advantage early in the second half. The teams then traded points followed by an Anthony Thompson three from the corner to give HC a 47-39 lead with 16:29 to go.
The Mustangs countered with a 13-5 run to tie the game 52-52 and it was game on. The Mustangs bumped the lead to five but Grady Corrigan calmly knocked down a triple and following a Mustang bucket from Brendan Buckley, McMurrin scored a tough shot from the low block followed by a layup from Corrigan as the game was tied at 59 with 8:58 to go.
Once again Morningside stretched the lead to seven this time but Corrigan countered with a three with Reggie Thomas following suit with a three of his own. After a Mustang free throw, Thomas went with the reverse layup to tie the game 69-69 with 4:30 remaining.
After trading buckets once again, HC would take the lead on a Corrigan mid-range jumper to go up 73-71 with 3:06 to go in the contest. Unfortunately, Hastings would not score again until Corrigan made a three at the buzzer as Morningside came away with the 81-76 victory.
Four Broncos finished in double figures as Thomas led the way with a double-double with 22 points on 9-of-19 shooting while dishing out a career high 10 assists. Corrigan and Danilo Matovic each finished with 16 points while McMurrin just missed out on a double-double with 12 points and nine boards.
Hastings finished the game shooting 55.6 percent (30-for-54) while Morningside shot 51.9 percent (28-for-54) but the big difference in the game was at the line where the Mustangs hit 18-of-23 attempts while Hastings was just 3-for-6 from the charity stripe. Even though turnovers were fairly low, the 13-to-5 advantage in points off turnovers also proved to be a big difference.
Hastings is now 11-4 (6-1) on the year and will look to bounce back Wednesday Jan. 10 against Mount Marty with tipoff set for 7:45 pm up in Yankton, SD.
