Reggie Thomas, Hastings College Men's Basketball v. Mount Marty 2024 // HC Bronco Athletics
HASTINGS – The Hastings College men’s basketball team was able to stay in a tie for first in the Great Plains Athletic Conference with its 88-62 victory over Mount Marty Wednesday night inside Lynn Farrell Arena.
The Broncos got off to a fast start getting 3-pointers from Tyrique McMurrin and Grady Corrigan to start the game following by a Nolan Sughroue layup to make it 8-0. After the Lancers got on the board, Reggie Thomas drained a three followed by a jumper from Corrigan and a McMurrin layup as HC led 15-2 in the early goings. After Thomas made two free-throws to grow the lead to 15, MMU would fight their way back into the game.
The Lancers would eventually get the deficit back down to four at 27-23 and would hang around for a bit starting at the 7:30 mark of the first half.
The Broncos and Lancers would kind of feel each other out as HC held a 38-33 lead with 1:27 to go. Hastings would continue to take advantage of its size down low as Thomas connected with Danilo Matovic for the layup. Following a defensive stop, McMurrin would connect from downtown to end the half as Hastings took the 43-33 lead into halftime.
The lead would hover around that 10 points for the first five minutes of the second half until a Lancer turnover led to a breakaway for HC as Matovic hit McMurrin for the fast break layup to go up 56-44. After the teams traded empty possessions, Matovic hit a cutting Quinn Johnson for the easy layup as HC was now up 58-44. Then Johnson would break free for another layup to put Hastings up 60-44 and the Broncos would not look back winning 88-62.
Thomas would hit yet another milestone in his young career as he would break the sophomore single season scoring record with his first free throw of the second half. The previous record was held by Mark Hiatt of 590 points set back during the 1981-82 season. Thomas finished the night scoring a game high 34 points as he was 12-for-15 from the floor, 4-of-5 from behind the arc and 6-of-7 from the line. Thomas currently has 610 points this season.
McMurrin added 18 points as he was 7-for-10 from the field and 2-of-4 from behind the arc. Matovic finished with 10 points as he pulled down six boards and dished out five assists. Johnson finished with nine points while Corrigan added eight.
The Broncos shot nearly 67 percent (35-for-55) from the floor while the Lancers shot 37 percent 21-for-57. HC was 10-for-21 from behind the arc while MMU was 7-of-18. Rebounds favored Hastings 33-to-31 but a huge difference was points in the paint as the Broncos finished with 46 compared to 28 for the Lancers.
Hastings is now 18-7 (12-4) on the year and will be back in action Saturday Feb. 17 as Briar Cliff comes to town with tipoff set for 3:45 pm inside Lynn Farrell Arena. The Broncos are now tied with Concordia in first place in the GPAC with just three games to go.
