The men’s basketball team (7-4, 1-1 MVC) played perhaps their best game of the season Wednesday night, cruising to a 88-51 win over the Blue Tigers (5-2, 2-2 Conference), their most significant margin of victory this season.

Three stars stood out for the Dawgs in the contest. Seniors Marcus Domask, Lance Jones, and sophomore Clarence Rupert all earned double-digit point totals throughout, with Rupert only needing 16 minutes of play to get to it. Domask went an impressive 8/11 on field goals for the night, while Jones wasn’t far behind going 6/9 and leading in assists with eight.

“I’m proud of our guys. I thought they came out and had the right mindset. I thought our effort was good for a full 40 minutes. We still made some mistakes but in terms of how we played, I thought they played the right way. They shared the ball, we did a pretty good job of keeping them out of the paint. Overall I thought it was a great team win. Everyone that played contributed and impacted winning,” head coach Bryan Mullins said.

Rupert said their rhythm tonight was key to the performance.

“Just coming out and having pace, defending the ball, just have amazing defense tonight,” Rupert said.

The Salukis certainly showed improvements tonight specifically in their shooting. The team as a whole made 36 of their 57 shots for a 63.2% shooting percentage, their highest total of the season so far, as well as forcing 21 turnovers for Lincoln, the most any opponent has had against the Salukis all season.

“For us, it’s just continuing to get better with this group and not taking a step back. You only get 31-32 game nights a year, so there’s no reason to take one off. We take advantage of every time we play in front of this community and these fans,” Mullins said.

The message balance tonight for the Salukis, as twelve different players scored a basket, and 12 of the thirteen who appeared earned 11 minutes or more of playtime.

“It just means a lot with everybody being able to shoot and catching a few shots. Just moving the basketball makes it a whole lot easier. It’s not an ISO shot, everybody trusts each other to put in the work and the results are showing,” Jones said. 

After the Blue Tigers earned the first basket, Rupert opened up the scoring with a quick layup. The Salukis got out to a four-point lead quickly but Lincoln came back to tie it up at 13. It only took a tough jump shot by Domask to start a 12-point run for the Salukis to go up 25-13 with less than eight minutes left of the half. The Dawgs would continue marching onto a 15-point lead heading into the locker room at 38-23.

Senior Trent Brown opened up the next frame with a three-pointer to set the tone for an impressive 50-point second half by the Dawgs. At one point, the Salukis really put the W in Dawgs with a 20-point scoring run only stopped by a free throw made by Lincoln. Shortly after, sophomore AJ Ferguson capped off the night with a huge dunk in the paint to add an exclamation point to the night, earning the Salukis’ largest lead of the night at 41.

The Dawgs will be back in action on Friday again in the Banterra Center for their last home game of the fall semester, as well as the last game on the long 4 game homestand. They’ll play Chicago State (3-9) with a 7 pm tip-off time.

Sports editor Joseph Bernard can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Jojobernard2001. 

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