It wasn’t a work of art, but the Southwestern men’s team got a tuneup in for Saturday’s conference matchup with Des Moines Area Community College Thursday night in an 82-51 victory over Grand View JV.
Just finding a game to play this week before Saturday’s return to league play was a challenge. Todd Lorensen, the team’s coach and college’s athletic director, had a busy week on the phone.
“Little Priest Tribal College was supposed to play us Tuesday but they cancelled their season in December,” Lorensen said. “Central JV was supposed to play us Monday, but did not come over because of concerns about the weather. Then the weather got us Tuesday when St. Marys of Kansas was going to come up and play. Finally, we got this game scheduled and it worked out.”
The Spartans moved out to a 47-26 halftime lead after sputtering at the start. All 12 players saw action and 11 of them scoring, with balance showed in three ending in double figures — Sergio Antelmi with 12 points, Terrance Smith at 11 points and Josh Tolbert with 10.
“We got off to a little bit of a slow start and I think we were tied at 21,” Lorensen said. “Then they were stuck on 21 points for a long time as we went on a run of 13 or 15 points. We started defending better and sharing the ball better for better quality shots. It was a good chance to shake off some rust after more than a week layoff.”
SWCC, rising to No. 5 on the NJCAA Division II poll this week at 21-3 overall, leads the ICCAC Division II standings at 6-0. DMACC comes into Saturday’s 3 p.m. contest here tied for fourth with Ellsworth at 2-4, and 15-7 overall.
In the first meeting at Boone, Southwestern moved out to a 14-point lead with four minutes to play before some missed free throws mixed with a hot run of DMACC 3-pointers closed it to a 77-76 final.
“We did a nice job of building that lead,” Lorensen said. “They have a really good wing player in Jafar Kinsey, a transfer from Division I Robert Morris, and some nice bigs. They got 14 offensive rebounds against us last time, so we have to clean that up. We forced them into taking some contested threes and they weren’t shooting it well. They are more than capable of beating us if we don’t play well.”
GRAND VIEW JV (51) — Tyler Williams 6 1-1 13, Avery Thedford 4 0-0 11, Davis Cima 3 0-0 9, Mason Denholm 3 0-0 8, Will Pennamon 2 0-0 4, Mitchell Putnam 2 0-0 4, Eric Mulder 1 0-0 2. Totals — 21 1-1 51. 3-point goals — 8 (Cima 3, Thedford 3, Denholm 2). Team fouls — 6. Fouled out — None.
SOUTHWESTERN (82) — Sergio Antelmi 6 0-0 12, Terrance Smith 4 0-0 11, Josh Tolbert 3 2-2 10, Jok Kut 3 1-1 9, Calvin Chambers 4 0-0 8, TJ Bower 3 0-0 8, Simon Joseph 4 0-0 8, Ahmad Newsome 3 0-0 7, KeShawn Wilson 2 0-0 6, Dylan Mason 1 0-0 3. Totals — 33 3-3 82. 3-point goals — 11 (Smith 3, Tolbert 2, Wilson 2, Bower 2, Mason 1, Newsome 1). Team fouls — 4. Fouled out — None.
Grand View — 26 51
SWCC — 47 85