Orediggers’ Bock drops 40 points in win over DSU
Montana Tech junior Bryan Bock has never had a game like the one he had Saturday at Scott Gymnasium.By: Dustin Monke, The Dickinson Press
- Phillip Johnson Jr.
Montana Tech junior Bryan Bock has never had a game like the one he had Saturday at Scott Gymnasium.
Bock’s smooth pull-up jumper devastated Dickinson State from outside the 3-point line early and on dribble drives late en route to a career-high 40 points.
His six first-half 3-pointers broke open the game and his playmaking in the second half sealed the deal as the Orediggers walked away with an 80-71 Frontier Conference victory.
“There’s a saying, ‘You dance with the girl that brung ya,’” Montana Tech head coach Aaron Woliczko said with a smile. “That’s what we did. We kept going to him, it livened up the rest of our team and our guys just jumped on his back. It was awesome.”
DSU looked to be building control as they took a 23-18 lead with 7 minutes remaining in the first half.
That’s when Bock turned it on.
He hit three unanswered 3-pointers in a span of 68 seconds, the last of which he converted into a four-point play after John Hanstad fouled him, to give the Orediggers a 28-23 lead.
Shortly after that, he hit three more in a span of 81 seconds that put Montana Tech ahead 41-25 with 2:40 remaining in the first half.
“I’ve been struggling with my shot a little bit lately,” said Bock, who was 15 of 21 from the field and 7 of 9 from 3-point range. “The last few games, I really wanted to have a conscious effort of going out there and playing with energy. I felt like that leads to good shots.”
The Blue Hawks (10-14, 3-6 Frontier) scored the last six points of the first half, including a James Hayden jumper as time expired, to cut Montana Tech’s halftime lead to 41-31.
DSU head coach Ty Orton said whatever momentum his team took into the intermission was completely washed away in the first three possessions of the second half.
“We had them pumped up at halftime and all of a sudden it’s two turnovers and five points and we’re back down by 15 and we just couldn’t get it back,” Orton said.
Bock opened the second half with his seventh and final 3-pointer and then went to work inside the arc.
He keyed an eight-point run that gave Montana Tech a 58-38 lead with 12:24 remaining.
Daniel Simon added 14 points and seven rebounds for the Orediggers (14-10, 5-5 Frontier).
Bock said he dedicated the game to a mentor back home in Rialto, Calif.
On Jan. 21, Steve Johnson — Bock’s former head coach at Rialto’s Eisenhower High School, where they won a California Division II state championship together in 2009 — was shot in a park in San Bernardino, Calif. He is recovering from injuries he received, according to articles in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
“He’s been the driving force this past week, since I heard about it,” Bock said. “I pretty much want to dedicate this game to him. … He’s pretty much what got me here, besides my family.”
Though the Orediggers never led by more than 20, they had a big enough lead to hold off DSU’s attempt at coming back.
The Blue Hawks cut the lead to eight on a pair of Jarek Hansen free throws with 47.1 seconds remaining and had opportunities down the stretch to get closer, but nothing came close to going in.
“We just didn’t execute,” said DSU junior Brock Boos, who had a team-high 15 points while hitting five 3-pointers of his own. “We didn’t play together and everything fell apart from not executing as a team. We went away from the game plan. We knew what he could do.”
Despite playing with flu-like symptoms, DSU senior Johnie Sanders added 11 points, five rebounds and three steals. Hanstad added nine points while Hansen and Phillip Johnson Jr. each scored eight.
DSU shot 26 of 57 (46 percent) from the field.
“It was one of those games where things didn’t go right for us,” Orton said. “We couldn’t get things going right and that kid just went off.”
The Blue Hawks now embark on a four-game road swing that keeps them on the road until Feb. 21. They visit the University of Great Falls (Mont.) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Rocky Mountain College next Saturday.
MONTANA TECH (14-10, 5-5 Frontier): Bryan Bock 15-21 4-7 40, Daniel Simon 5-8 4-7 14, Brandon Rydberg 2-3 2-2 7, Roman Pruneda-Garza 1-3 1-3 3, Adam Greger 3-9 2-5 9, Travis Peevey 0-2 2-2 2, Quinn Smith 1-1 3-4 5, Paul Engstrom 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-47 17-28 80.
DICKINSON STATE (10-14, 3-6 Frontier): Johnie Sanders 3-9 5-7 11, Phillip Johnson Jr. 4-8 0-0 8, Robbie Morey 1-4 0-0 3, James Hayden 3-8 0-0 6, John Hanstad 3-4 1-1 9, Ty Ackelson 1-1 0-0 3, Anthony Hodges 2-3 0-0 4, Ryan Sullivan 1-1 0-0 2, Brock Boos 5-9 0-0 15, Isiah Thomas 1-2 0-0 2, Jarek Hansen 2-8 4-6 8, Jeremy Samuelson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-57 10-14 71.
Halftime: MT 41-31. Total fouls: MT 18, DSU 21. Fouled out: Hanstad. 3-point goals: MT 9-14 (Bock 7-9, Rydberg 1-2, Greger 1-2, Peevey 0-1), DSU 9-26 (Sanders 0-3, Johnson 0-1, Morey 1-4, Hayden 0-2, Hanstad 2-2, Ackelson 1-1, Boos 5-9, Hansen 0-4). Rebounds: MT 33 (Simon 7), DSU 28 (Sanders 5). Assists: MT 18 (Bock 5, Simon 5), DSU 12 (Hansen 5). Steals: MT 11 (Bock 3), DSU 6 (Sanders 3). Blocks: MT 2 (Simon, Smith), DSU 1 (Sanders). Turnovers: MT 14 (Pruneda-Garza 5), DSU 12 (Hodges 3, Johnson 3).
Tags: college basketball, dsu blue hawks, frontier conference, sports, basketball
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