The Tiger men's basketball team had their hands full on Saturday evening as they took on one of the top GPAC teams in the University of Sioux Falls, ranked No. 10 in the NAIA. Doane suffered a three-point set back to the top team in the conference on Wednesday and dropped their second straight on Saturday, falling 59-54 to the Cougars.
The Coo jumped out with the first five points of the game before Doane went on a 10-4 run to take a 10-9 lead. Sioux Falls came back with a 9-2 run and built their largest lead of the first half at 18-12. The Tigers battled back and took a lead, 25-24, with two minutes remaining on a Tyler Cyboron three-pointer. Ronnell Grant hit a three-point basket with 54 seconds remaining to give the Cougars a 27-25 lead at halftime.
Doane tied the game on their first possession of the second half as Jens Scholl hit a jumper. The Coo answered with back-back baskets to take a four-point lead. The two squads went back and forth and the Tigers were able to take a one-point lead, 37-36, on a three-point bucket by Tyler Weatherholt.
Sioux Falls responded with their largest run of the game, 8-0, to take a 44-37 lead over Doane. However, the Tigers wouldn't go away and they were able to eventually able to cut the lead to two points with 3:26 remaining in the game. Sioux Falls hit 9-of-10 free throws over the next three minutes of play.
Trailing by five, Doane received an offensive put back by Scholl to pull within three. Following a timeout, Sioux Falls inbounded the ball to Matt Malloy who was immediately trapped. Malloy tried to send a pass to a teammate near the sideline but it was out of reach and went out of play to the Tigers.
Doane had two shot attempts but both rolled off the rim and Sioux Falls was able to wrap it up and knock down two free throws to clinch the game.
Sioux Falls was held to their second lowest scoring output of the season in the game. The Cougars committed 20 turnovers in the game compared to 10 by Doane. The difference came at the free throw line where Sioux Falls was 17-of-19 and Doane went 7-of-12.
Doane was led in scoring and rebounding by Scholl. He posted 11 points and nine rebounds while adding three steals and two assists. Cyboron added 10 points for the Tigers. Trent Schlautman had six steals, matching the total number of steals that Sioux Falls had in the game.
The Cougars were led by Malloy's 17 points while Grant added 15 points. DeShawn Howard and David Maxwell had six rebounds apiece.