The men’s basketball season will be underway next week as they square off at home against non-conference opponent Wheaton College. Wheaton got the best of Loras last year in a 79-63 victory but will be facing a much improved Duhawk team this season.

The Duhawks got off to a slow start at the beginning of last year’s season, which was detrimental to their playoff chances. Things eventually began to click with the the second half of the season, but the hole was a bit too deep.

In their last six conference games last season, the Duhawks went 5-1 to make a push for a playoff spot but found themselves on the outside looking in after a four-team tie break scenario denied them a spot. They finished the season on the heels of a three-game win streak.

This year, the Duhawks will be led by five seniors: Brian Gaughan, Jordan Harrelson, Zack Peterson, Tim Kelly and Dan Pawelski. Pawelski finished last season as the team leader in points and rebounds averaging 11.8 points per game and 7.5 rebounds and received second-team all-conference honors for his play.

Head coach Greg Gorton expects “great leadership” out of these five men, and they have all been elected captains. Kelly and Harrelson also return as two-year starters, and are no strangers to putting up big stats.

IIAC Competition looks to be tough this year. The team everyone hopes to beat this year will be Luther who took home the conference championship last season. The Duhawks were 1-1 against Luther last season.

“Our expectations are a conference championship only,” said Gorton. “We learned a lot about ourselves a year ago and have most of the team back. We have the talent to beat any team in our league.”

The men’s basketball team finished the season with a three-game winning streak and a 5-1 record in their final 6 conference games, but Loras still failed to make the postseason in a tie-break scenario.

The Duhawks traveled to Cornell last Wednesday hoping to keep pace in the Iowa Conference race for the final three seeds in the tournament.

The Duhawks took a 3-point lead into halftime thanks in part to a strong 10-point performance in the first half by junior Jordan Harrelson that included an alley-oop dunk — with an assist from senior Travis Guy — setting the tone for the contest.

Loras didn’t let up and stretched the lead to double digits for most of the second half en route to the 67-57 victory.

“The Cornell victory proved that our team understood the formula to win on the road,” said Assistant Coach Ryan Kane. “That is defending and executing.”

Loras shot 57 percent from the field in the second half and outscored the Rams by a 38-16 margin of points in the paint. Harrelson led all scorers with 16 points on 8-for-12 shooting; junior Tim Kelly added 12 points, sophomore Connor Mooney scored 11 points and recorded 4 assists; and senior Travis Guy and junior Dan Pawelski combined for 20 points and 15 rebounds in the contest.

The Duhawks played their final game of the season last Saturday, in what turned out to be a must-win scenario on Senior Day, as they hosted the Wartburg Knights. The seniors set the tempo for the game early, jumping to a 12-6 lead.

The Duhawks made six 3-pointers in the first half to take a 36-33 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The second half was even better. It was all Duhawks as they outscored the Knights 39-18 in the second half, knocking down five more 3-pointers.

The Duhawks led by as many as 25 points twice in the game and dominated Wartburg in nearly every statistical category, including points off turnovers, second-chance points and bench scoring by wide margins.

The three seniors — Mike Gleason, Tyson Handsaker and Travis Guy — combined for 23 points, five 3-pointers, and 11 rebounds in their last game for Loras.

Harrelson recorded a double-double for the Duhawks, scoring 10 points and pulling down 13 boards in just 19 minutes.

“The Wartburg game was as complete a defensive effort as we gave all year,” said Kane. “There was plenty to play for, so the energy was high. And the way the seniors started the game, it was clear that we were not going to give them anything easy all day.”

With the convincing win over the Knights, the Duhawks improved their season record to 11-14 overall and 8-8 in the conference.

At the end of the day, Loras found themselves in a four-way tie for fourth place in the conference with Simpson, Buena Vista and Central. Unfortunately, Loras was a combined 1-5 against those three opponents, and it prevented the Duhawks from gaining a berth in the Iowa Conference Tournament.

“I felt worst for the seniors on Saturday after not getting into the tournament,” Kane said. “To not know how your career is going to end and have it end outside of your control has to be crushing. They will be missed. Each of them brought something different on and off the court.

“Each departing class seems to have a different dynamic; this class was no different,” Kane continued. “They are the last remaining guys who had a taste of a championship here at Loras.”

The men’s basketball team completed the season series sweep of Coe last week, defeating the Kohawks 70-68 in a game that came all the way down to the last shot.

Going into the game Wednesday night Coe stood one game back in the Iowa Conference standings with an impressive 9-3 record in the league. However, one of those three losses came at the hands of Loras’ 77-65 victory back in mid-January.

The Duhawks have been enjoying success against the top teams in the conference as of late, as they also have beaten conference-leading Luther and the University of Dubuque, which sits in third place. They hoped to continue their success against another strong conference foe as they faced the Kohawks for the last time this season.

The Duhawks came out hot in the first half and opened the game with an 11-0 run. Twice in the half, Loras led by 15 points, as the Duhawks connected on five first-half 3-pointers. Loras went into the locker room with a 8-point lead at halftime.

The Duhawks pushed the lead up to as many as 17 points in the second half, but Coe came on strong toward the end of the game, especially during the last 5 minutes, and the Kohawks cut Loras’ lead down to 2 with a 3-pointer with 29 seconds to go.

“It was 35 minutes of some very strong basketball,” said Coach Greg Gorton. “The last 5 minutes, they made a run and we lacked some aggressiveness. They are one game away from a conference championship, so you expect them to make a run.”

The Duhawks also missed all four of their free throws in the last 36 seconds, allowing Coe a chance to win the game. With 4 seconds left, Coe first-year Andrew Wirth, who already had connected on three 3-pointers, threw up the potential game-winner, but it bounced off the rim. Senior Mike Gleason secured the rebound and preserved the 70-68 win.

“We were very good on defense, which leads to offense for this team,” said Gorton. “We played well enough to win at home and continue on our path to the playoffs.”

The win improved the Duhawks record to 9-14 overall on the season and 6-8 in conference play.

“We played hard and responded well to a tough stretch of three games in five days. Our two ‘5 men,’ Danny (Pawelski) and Ryan (Coon), held their starting center scoreless,” said junior Tim Kelly. “Unfortunately, we almost let it slip away at the end. We need to work on finishing games when we have a lead like that.”

Kelly led the team with 18 points in just 23 minutes of play. Gleason and junior Dan Pawelski each added 10 points and junior Brian Gaughan recorded five assists for the Duhawks. Loras also rebounded well, outscoring Coe 12-2 in second-chance points.

“We’re still fighting for our playoff lives at this point, so both games mean everything to us,” Kelly said. “It’s been a crazy year in this league, so we know that we have to be at our best every night.”

The Duhawks travel to play Cornell on Wednesday and then will host Wartburg in their final regular-season game of the season. Both games have become must wins in order to reach the conference playoffs.

“Wartburg has two of the five best scorers in our conference and they beat us fairly easily on their home floor a month ago,” said Gorton. “We definitely will need the student section on Saturday at the AWC to help us.”

The men’s basketball team avenged their home court loss to the University of Dubuque earlier this season, with an impressive 63-56 win last Saturday.

The Duhawks came into the game Saturday after a week hiatus since playing their last game; edging the conference leading Luther Norseman 51-50 on Jan. 29. Entering the game against the University of Dubuque had posted an 8-3 record in conference play and recorded an 11-point victory over Loras during the middle of January.

“This rivalry is very similar to Duke and North Carolina.  Two teams right down the street who really don’t like each other,” said senior Travis Guy. “Every game we play always seems to come down to what team plays better in the final minute.”

The Duhawks were strong out of the gate and controlled the majority of the first half and headed into the locker room at halftime up 29-26. Dubuque was able to tie the game three times in the second half but Loras was able to pull away at the 1:08 mark in the second half after a two-point jumper by Guy put the Duhawks up by 8 late. Loras went 6-6 from the free throw line following Guy’s jumper and were able to hold on and secure the victory. Both Guy and head coach Greg Gorton agree that the key to the victory was the way the team played on the defensive end of the court.

“We defended with competitive greatness.  Our team has locked down mentally over the last few games defensively.  It wasn’t the prettiest game offensively, but it was beautiful defensively,” said Gorton.

Guy led all scorers in the game with 15 points that included a perfect 6-6 from the charity stripe. Juniors Tim Kelly and Jordan Harrelson added 12 apiece and junior Dan Pawelski pulled in 11 rebounds for the Duhawks. The Duhawks bench also outscored UD’s bench 22-11 in the game and the defensive was able to hold the Spartans to under 35% shooting from the field.

“We are finally coming together at a perfect time defensively.  Throughout the season we were trying out-score teams but we changed our philosophy and focused on defending,” said Guy.  “We held a UD team who averages 79 points to only 56.”

The win over Dubuque improved Loras’ record to 5-7 in the conference. The bigger story may be the fact that they beat two of the top three teams in the IIAC conference in back to back games as they near closer to the playoffs.

“We know we can beat anyone at anytime.  If we can get into the playoffs, we will be ready,” said Gorton.

The Duhawks hoped to build on their momentum Tuesday against Buena Vista University and pick up another conference win as they continue a late season push, but the Duhawks fell to BV 75-94, giving Loras its eighth loss in the conference.

“BV is very talented and they are very well coached.  Traveling there and playing is never easy,” said Gorton.

The men’s basketball team fell to their second straight conference opponent Saturday in a low-scoring affair against Luther College.

Junior Dan Pawelski led the Duhawks with 16 points (all coming in the second half) and eight rebounds in a game that saw each team shoot under 35 percent and that resulted in 11 lead changes.

Senior Travis Guy was the next-leading scorer for the Duhawks with 11 points, and senior Tyson Handsaker pulled in eight rebounds.

Each team was able to keep pace with each other throughout the game in what developed into a defensive struggle. Luther grabbed an eight-point lead early in the game, but the Duhawks closed the gap in the first half and the game remained tight the rest of the way.

The Duhawks trailed for much of the first half. With 7 seconds to go in the half, sophomore Connor Mooney drained a 3-pointer for Loras to send the team into the locker room down by just 2 points, 22-20.

“Every year it is a tempo game up at Luther. They run 30 seconds of offense each possession, so the number of possessions is lower than your average game,” said Coach Greg Gorton.

In the second half, Loras jumped out to their largest lead of the night after three made free throws by Pawelski made the game 34-30. But Luther found a spark late to go on a 7-0 run to grab a six-point lead with 37 seconds left.
Guy nailed a three to pull the Duhawks within 3, but that was as close as Loras got. Luther was able to hold on for a 49-45 victory.

“We defended them very well. We showed a lot of heart and desire on that side of the court,” Gorton said. “We had a difficult time getting great shots. Luther is a very difficult team to play because they defend so well. We had every chance to win that game, but we did not execute in the last three minutes of the game.”

The loss brought the Duhawks to 1-6 on the year and 0-2 in the IIAC, but Gorton is optimistic the team will begin to pick it up.

“We need to keep playing and stay the course. We have a lot of good players and we just need to get on a roll. I expect us to do just that.”

The men’s basketball team find themselves at the bottom looking up as their record is now 1-5 on the season, losing their first conference game to Central College Wednesday night.

Over Thanksgiving weekend Loras collected its first win against Wisconsin-Platteville, despite starting the weekend off with a loss against St. Olaf, their fourth straight loss.

Junior Tim Kelly stood out in the men’s lone win, something that Loras will need to see a lot out of throughout the season, scoring 16 points and collecting three rebounds. The men winning their first game took a lot of pressure off the team under the coaching of Greg Gorton.

“It felt great. We have played a very difficult road schedule and to go into their gym and defend them the way we did was a great boost for our team,” said Gorton. “I believe they have beaten us four straight times over the last five years.”

Something that the team can take away from the losses and tough competition they face is to see what they really have in their team. Gorton believes that with each game the team will learn more about themselves on the court and work to improve their play and record.

“We knew coming in we would have a difficult start. We refuse to schedule easy wins,” said Gorton. “Going on the road for eight of our first nine games creates character and will help us in the long run.”

Wednesday night Loras had its ups and downs getting within distance to stay in the game against Central College, but in the end the conference foe was too much to handle and beat Loras 74-64, giving the Duhawks their first conference loss of the season.

The men next travel to face Luther College and Simpson College, two other conference opponents that they hope start a turnaround for the team.

Rob Hermes can be reached at Rob.Hermes@loras.edu

Morgan Finke
Published September 24, 2008

DUBUQUE- The basketball team has had some time off, since their NCAA tournament appearance last season and Coach Gorton hopes they will come prepared to work as the new season approaches,

“Hopefully at this point they have already prepared themselves in terms of skill work, so now it’s just a matter of trying to get their physical, their body ready for the wear and tear of a year,” said coach Gorton.

Despite an impressive finish last season, the team is looking to be even bigger and better this year.

“Our guys have great goals and aspirations this season to achieve things that have never been done, never been accomplished here at Loras,” explained Coach Gorton.

However, with a few key players lost through graduation, there is some doubt that the team will be able to match last year’s success.

“The other conference coaches think we’ll be down and it’s a great rally cry for us,” added Gorton.

That confidence is reassuring, but what is the source of the confidence?

Gorton explained, “I love our mixture of young fresh talent coming into the program, I think all of the Duhawk fans will be really excited about some of things new guys”

Come November 12th we’ll see if his confidence and the team’s hard work will pay off.

Morgan Finke can be reached at Morgan.Finke@lctv13.com