Contact: Mark Johnson, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7970
Feb. 8, 2020- The Loras College men's basketball team (16-6, 9-4 A-R-C) rallied back from a first-half deficit against Coe College (12-9, 7-5 A-R-C) at home as JT Ford came up big for the Duhawks in the second half to help Loras pull off this American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) victory by a final score of 77-76 on Saturday.
In the first half, the Duhawks got on the board first with back-to-back layups from Ford and Jackson Kolinski. However, despite the quick start the Duhawks struggled offensively shooting 44.9% from the field and going 5-13 from beyond the arch allowing Coe to pull ahead early on. The Kohawks made their first of nine three-point baskets in the first half at the 15:36 mark and quickly took their first lead of the game shortly after. The Duhawks battled from behind the rest of the quarter and fell by as much as 13 points after back-to-back three-point baskets from the Kohawks. Loras quickly answered the bell with a three-point basket of their own from Matt Dacy-Seijo followed by a layup from Ford to cut the Kohawks lead to just eight points with 4:44 remaining in the first half. The Duhawks kept fighting back as Coe kept the pressure up on offense as Loras fell behind by ten points making the score 43-33 heading into the locker room.
Coe scored the opening jumper of the second half extending their lead to 12 points their second-largest of the game before Cole Navigato answered with a layup to chip away at the Kohawks lead. The Duhawks continued to battle cutting Coe's lead to just four points after a made three-point basket from Dacy-Seijo followed by a trade-off of layups as Ford cuts the Kohawk lead back down to four points. Dacy-Seijo scored the Duhawks next five points giving Loras a one-point lead their first since the opening minutes of the first quarter. The back and forth lead changes ensued as the Kohawks kept taking advantage of offensive opportunities but Ford had the answer for the Duhawks scoring on three straight possessions keeping Loras right in the game. The back and forth battle continued as Coe made two free throws to give the Kohawks a one-point lead with 3:38 left in the second half. Ford once again came up huge for the Duhawks offensively knocking down back-to-back jump shots to give Loras a three-point lead with just over three minutes remaining. Coe scored four unanswered points to go back ahead with 2:09 remaining making the score 76-75.
On the Kohawks' next possession, they missed a contested three-point shot allowing Jake Healy to grab the defensive rebound to allow the Duhawks to call a timeout with 18 seconds remaining. On Loras's next offensive possession Kolinski came up with a huge offensive rebound and a second-chance layup to put the Duhawks up by one-point with 11 seconds left to play. Navigato came up huge on the other end of the court with a blocked shot on Coe's last opportunity to seal the deal for the Duhawks by a final score of 77-76.
Once again Ford finished the game as the Duhawks leading scorer with 24 points while Dacy-Seijo scored 16 points off the bench. Rowan McGowen tallied ten points while Navigato had nine points. Healy had a team-high ten rebounds. Kolinski finished the game with eight points and seven rebounds.
The Duhawks travel up the road to play the University of Dubuque in an A-R-C matchup on Wednesday, Feb. 12. Tip-off is set for 7:30 P.M.
