DUBUQUE, Iowa (Duhawks.com) - The Loras College men's basketball team opened conference play strongly Wednesday night, defeating Coe College by a final score 75-68. In head coach Greg Gorton's tenure, the Duhawks are 5-4 in conference openers. Loras was led by senior Mirko Grcic, who recorded his fourth double-double of the season. Grcic scored 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting, while hauling in 10 rebounds.

TURNING POINT
Tied at 43, Loras went on a 6-0 run with 13:24 to play in the half. For the remainder of the game, Coe was unable to earn level footing, trailing by as many as 13 with 2:16 to play.

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half
As indicative of their records, each side played a close game throughout the first half of play, resulting in the Duhawks trailing 32-31 at the break.

Loras was done in by their lack of care for the ball, turning it over to Coe 10 times in the half. This lead to nine points off turnovers for the Kohawks. The Duhawks shot a much better percentage from the floor for the half at 44.8 percent as opposed to 32.4 percent, but turnovers allowed Coe to remain in the game.

Offensively, Grcic had a resurgent half following a trip to Phoenix which saw him score just 24 total points in Loras games against Southern Maine and Keene State. Grcic scored 11 points in the half on 5-of-8 shooting, a first half game-high.

In his first career start, freshman Nolan Timp anchored the first half defense with a pair of blocks on Matt Meyer. Coe's Marshall Shedeck was held to three points on 1-of-5 shooting. Entering Wednesday, Shedeck was Coe's second-leading scorer, averaging 15.9 points per game.

Second Half
Teams opened the second half in a similar way to the first half, trading baskets up until the turning point of the action. A 6-0 run for the Duhawks gave Loras enough of a cushion to prevent the Kohawks from making a comeback.

The biggest takeaway of the second half was the 24 free-throws attempted by the Duhawks. Loras converted on 19-of-24 shots from the charity stripe for a 79.2 clip. VanWambeke and Grcic succeeded at drawing contact at the rim, putting a number of Kohawks in foul trouble. Four of Coe's starters finished the game with four fouls apiece.

Just as it was on display Wednesday, the Iowa Conference will play host to many close games this season, and Loras got a good taste of how crucial free throws will be the rest of the season.

Defensively, Loras played one of their best games of the season, holding Coe to 36.4 percent shooting from the field. The Duhawks limited Coe's starters to a combined 12-of-48 shooting. Added pressure put on Jacob Timm forced the conference-leading ball handler into committing four turnovers, his most in any single game this season.

FRIEDMAN GROUP PLAYER OF THE GAME
Mirko Grcic | The senior rebounded from a sub-par performance down south to collect his fourth double-double of the season. Grcic recorded 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the floor. A key factor in Grcic's scoring was his efficiency at the charity stripe, knocking down 7-of-8 tries in the second half.

SOUNDBITES | Mirko Grcic & Justin VanWambeke


SOUNDBITES | Greg Gorton


UP NEXT
Loras continues conference play on Saturday against Buena Vista, who won their conference opener against Simpson to move to 6-6 on the season. The Beavers were led by Nick Clark who scored a game-high 35 points on 11-of-18 shooting, 8-of-14 from deep.