Box Score JAMESTOWN, ND – The Mayville State Comets went down to Jamestown, ND for their lone conference game of the weekend, playing inside the brand new Newman Arena on the campus of the University of Jamestown. Coming off a close loss to Presentation the previous weekend, the #22 Comets were looking to come out with a win over the Jimmies on Saturday night.
The first half started with the Jimmies taking a quick 4-0 lead, climbing it up to a 12-4 one before Coach Tighe called a quick 30 second timeout after a
Cameron Epps bucket that shrunk the lead down to six. The tempo of the game swung back and forth on each possession, with the Jimmies having the advantage, 22-16 at the media timeout with 9:11 to go in the half. The Comets made an 8-2 surge to tie the game up at 24, then tied things up again at 26 and 28 points. That flurry saw the Comets balancing the scoring among
Gorg Alhag and
Daniel Lindgren. The Jimmies finished the half out with a big rush of their own, starting it off with some quick buckets to take an eleven point lead at the half, 41 to 30. The Comets were not shooting quite as well to end the half, closing it out at 35% and 2-6 from behind the arc. Jamestown had a 45% edge in field goal shooting, including five three's. The Jimmies' Leighton Sampson and Carter Keller were already in double figures at the half with 14 and 13 respectively.
The second half saw the Jimmies come out strong with a three right away and slowly getting ahead of the Comets. They climbed the lead up to 15, causing MSU to call a timeout with 13:15 to go. The game slid up and down between a 10 and 13 point lead between the two teams until the final four minutes of play. MSU narrowed it to eight after
Garek Droog and
Creighton Pfau connected for scores, the score at 64 to 56. The Comets limited the Jimmies to just two free throws for a stretch and closed it to four with 2:00 left in the game, fueled by Droog and Lindgren. The game was kept tight with tension until UJ nailed a bucket to take a 6-point lead with 27.1 seconds to go. The Comets were unable to connect in the waning seconds, and fell in another tight battle, 69 to 62.
Leading for the Comets were
Daniel Lindgren and
Gorg Alhag, each with twelve points.
Garek Droog had ten points and also led the team with six rebounds. The Jimmies had four in double figures, led by Leighton Sampson with 21. The Comets shot 35% from the field and another quiet night with their long range shots, shooting 27% by going 5-18. The Jimmies also won the battle of the boards with 44 rebounds to the Comets' 36.
The Comets will return home for a two game series on February 9th and 10th versus Dakota State and Bellevue. Those games will be at 7:30 pm and 5:00 pm.
