Duhawks dominate, advance to IIAC Championship
Kristine Mason, SID Assistant

BOXSCORE

The Loras College men's basketball team controlled the court in the Athletics & Wellness Center Thursday night in a semifinal win over the Coe College Kohawks, 82-64. The win earns the Duhawks a spot in the IIAC Championship game on Saturday.

Kyle White was the top player on the night for Loras with 24 points and 13 rebounds. Juniors Ricky Kolze and Brian Centella added a pair of 15 point efforts to the score sheet as well. The team made 50 percent of their field goals for the game and were 73.1% from the free throw line.

Kohawk standout Kyle Kuenstling led the team in points and rebounds with 17 and 9. He also blocked three shots. The loss ended the season for Coe as they finish with a 16-11 overall and 10-6 conference record.

The Duhawks will again make the trip to Storm Lake, Iowa for the final round on Saturday, March 1 against rival Buena Vista University. The Beavers won their semifinal match in a close call against The University of Dubuque, 91-86 to qualify for the Championship.

This season the Duhawks have lost the BVU twice by a combined three points. Andre Wagner sunk the game-winning jumper on January 16th in Dubuque with 1.1 seconds remaining. In the regular season finale, the Duhawks fell 80-79 just five days ago in Storm Lake.

In 2007, Loras swept the season series 3-0, including the IIAC title game, which closed the Fieldhouse era of Duhawk basketball in a 77-62 win. Revenge was on the Beavers' mind early this 07-08 season, defeating the Duhawks by a combined three points in the two regular season matches. Buena Vista will be looking to return the favor from a year ago when they try to sweep the season series from Loras on their home floor Saturday night.

BVU has played in the last eight IIAC title games, winning six of them. Loras has only one appearance, a year ago in the win over the Beavers. This will be the first home IIAC title game for BVU since 2003-2004.

Tipoff is 7:00 PM and can be heard locally on WDBQ-AM 1490 and on the worldwide web at www.loras.edu/athletics .