JAMESTOWN - Dickinson State guard Julian Vasquez found himself apologizing to his teammates for being zoned in on teammate Jacob Gondrezick and not looking elsewhere with 27 seconds remaining on Wednesday night.
It didn’t matter.
Gondrezick took the feed and buried a 3-pointer for a two-point lead, and the University of Jamestown failed to respond in the Blue Hawks’ 82-77 triumph at the Jamestown Civic Center.
“I wasn’t looking for anyone but Jake,” said Vasquez, whose 27 points led all scorers. “He had hit two 3s earlier (in the half). I had to get my man the ball. He came through and knocked it down. It was a big play.”
The Jimmies took the clock down to six seconds, and All-American Brequan Tucker took a 3-pointer for the lead, but it was no good.
In a game that had already seen three technical fouls and plenty of other extra-curricular activity, Tucker was called for an intentional foul on the ensuing inbounds play, leading to a Reggie Fields Jr. free throw.
Retaining possession on the foul, Vasquez was sent to the line and put the game on ice with two free throws. He finished 7 of 8 at the foul line and was 8 of 14 from the floor including four 3-pointers. The Blue Hawks had 10 3-pointers to nine for Jamestown.
“We’re good shooters when we need to be,” Vasquez said. “Most of the teams we play shoot better than us from 3, but you have to make big shots in big games.”
Vasquez did most of his damage in the first half, scoring 16 of his team’s first 28 points. It cooled off in the second half, but he hit when the Blue Hawks needed him most.
“We just couldn’t guard him tonight,” Jamestown coach Danny Neville said. “They made tough shots. We just needed to get stops late and we didn’t.”
Gondrezick joined Vasquez with four 3-pointers, ending with 14 points. Fields had 13 for DSU, which had to rally from a 43-36 halftime deficit. The largest lead of the game was eight.
The Jimmies received another stellar outing out of point guard Jacob Hagler. The junior from Cando scored 24 points with a perfect 10 of 10 performance from the charity stripe. Sam Johnson also performed well, coming off the bench for five 3-pointers in the 17-point outing.
But Vasquez said the key was holding down Tucker, and that was done effectively in the second half. He was held to four points after halftime, ending with 13.
“Compare that to the 30 he scored against us at home - we did the best we could,” Vasquez said. “We adapted to what we needed to and came out with the win.”
DSU: Julian Vasquez 27, Reggie Fields Jr., 13, Jacob Gondrezick 14, Stephon Dafney 9, Gilbert Shojgreen Jr., 8, Curtis Redd 6, Billy Engel 3, Brandon Jamar 2. Totals 29-66 14-19 82.
UJ: Jake Hagler 24, Sam Johnson 17, Brequan Tucker 13, KeWan Davis 8, Logan Brown 6, Jacob Havron 5, Vlad Stoicoviciu 4. Totals 22-66 9-26 77.
Halftime: UJ 43-36. 3-pointers: DSU 10-23 (Julian Vasquez 4, Jacob Gondrezick 4, Engel, Dafney), UJ 9-26 (Johnson 5, Tucker 3, Brown). Rebounds: DSU 43 (Dafney 11), UJ 42 (Davis 11). Assists: DSU 21 (Gondrezick 6), UJ 13 (Hagler 4). Fouls: DSU 25, UJ 17. Turnovers: DSU 11, UJ 10.
Records: DSU 4-2 NSAA, 11-10 overall. UJ 3-3, 11-8.
