March 14, 2004

Men’s Basketball Reaches Regional Finals

Lopers to Quick for Coyotes

Kearney, Neb. – North Platte senior forward Nick Branting scored 31 points and Grand Island senior guard Brian Dunagan added 21 to help the 7^th-ranked Nebraska-Kearney men’s basketball run past the South Dakota Coyotes, 96-80, Sunday night in the second round of the NCAA tournament in Denver.

UNK (28-4) will play either No. 1 ranked Metro State or South Dakota State Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. CST.

This is the second straight year UNK had made the regional finals. The Lopers also made the “Sweet Sixteen” in 1999. Also, the 28 wins this year ties the 1983-84 squad for second most in school history. UNK won a school-record 30 contests last year.

The Lopers led for all but the first minute of the game and held a double digit lead for the last 10 minutes of the first half. Ahead 52-38 at the break, the Loper lead stayed between eight and 15 points the entire second half.

The Coyotes (22-10) made its final run with about six minutes to go when they went on a 7-2 run to cut the UNK advantage to nine, 83-7, with just under four minutes left. UNK was in serious foul trouble at this time as with, eight minutes to go, Branting, Dunagan and Utah junior Will Taukuivea each had four fouls.

The undersized Lopers put a tired USD away with three straight three point plays in a span of 45 seconds. The first two were by Branting and the last one was by Columbus freshman Dusty Jura, which gave UNK its biggest lead of the night, 91-74, with 3:11 to play.

In his sixth 30-point game of the year, Branting was 12 of 20 from the field and a solid 7 of 8 at the line. His season point total of 719 is the second most in UNK history, trailing only Bart Kofoed’s effort of 902 in 1986-87.

Dungan had 11 quick points to help the blue and gold grab an early 19-8 lead. He finished with 21 points, three shy of his career high, thanks to 5 of 9 three point shooting.

Jura had his ninth double double of the year (17 points, 11 rebounds) while Taukiuvea had several strong moves to the bucket to finish with 18 points on 8 of 11 shooting.

Finally, Grand Island senior point guard Chad Sheffield had nine assists tonight, giving him 194 for the season. He’ll need just five on Tuesday to break Kofoed’s single season record of 198 (1986-87).

The much shorter Lopers out rebounded USD, 35-30, and shot a strong 56 percent from the field.

Five Coyotes were in double figures, led by junior guard Josh Mueller. Fellow guard Doug Hanson came off the bench to score 14. Tommie King, the leading scorer in the North Central Conference at 21.9 per game, was held to 12 points on 3 of 10 shooting from the field.