No. 2 North Lake Pulls Away from No. 7 Richland for 20th Win
DAYLEN WEBB DUNK ON FEED FROM ANTHONY SOLOMON
IRVING, Texas – Dallas College North Lake's No. 2-ranked men's basketball team picked up a big win Saturday, beating No. 7 Dallas College Richland, 78-60, to take a two-game lead atop the Dallas Athletic Conference standings.
The Blazers (20-4, 6-0 DAC) held the Thunderducks (11-8, 4-2) to 30 points in both halves in limiting their eighth straight opponent to under 70 points. North Lake is giving up 70 points per game, and 67.4 in conference.
Bryson Smith scored 14 points, and had four rebounds and two steals for the Blazers. Jakob Zenon had 13 points, nine rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal. Randy Woolf finished with 11 points, six boards and a block. Autavius Hobbs and Ring Deng both scored nine points, and Daylen Webb had eight. Deng added seven rebounds, five assists, three blocks and two steals. Webb, who shot 4 of 5 from the field, pulled down eight boards, and blocked a shot.
Richland's Taven Washington scored 17 points, and grabbed six rebounds. Cjay Ingram finished with 13 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Zion Bourgious had 12 points and two steals.
North Lake shot 49 percent, going 26 of 53 from the floor, including 4 of 14 from three-point distance. The Blazers held Richland to 34.5 percent from the field as the Thunderducks hit 20 of 58 shots, including 3 of 17 from 3-point range. The Blazers were 22 of 31 from the free throw line. The Thunderducks shot 17 of 25.
The Blazers took a 24-17 lead in the opening half when Anden Holmes scored at the 5:53 mark. Washington answered with a bucket on the Thunderducks' next trip down the floor, but Woolf converted a three-point play to stretch lead out to 27-19. Webb's lay-in on a drop-off from Woolf kept North Lake in front by nine with 3:27 remaining in the first half.
Bourgious' three-point play brought Richland within six. Hobbs went coast-to-coast for a layup with a little over 2:00 left in the half to build the Blazers' lead to 10, but the Thunderducks answered again on DeWaun Mims' three-pointer to cut it to seven.
North Lake led 37-30 at the break.
Smith canned a triple roughly four minutes into the second half as the Blazers widened their lead to 12, but Washington rose up for a jumper, and Bourgious scored eight points over a two-minute stretch to pull Richland back within six, 48-42. Ingram scored with nine minutes to play to shrink the deficit to four before Webb's putback on the next trip gave North Lake a six-point cushion.
Smith sank two free throws, and canned a 3-pointer within a minute to bump the Blazers' lead back to double digits, 61-50 with just under 7:00 remaining. Smith sank a pair again from the free throw line, and Woolf hit one of two to make it 64-50. Ingram scored on a baseline drive off the glass on the Thunderducks' next trip down the court as Richland cut it under double digits again, but Woolf coaxed a one-handed shot high off the glass with 2:26 to play to extend North Lake's lead to 67-52, and the Blazers put it away.
It was North Lake's 14th straight win. Second-year Blazers head coach Josh Mills won his 20th game for the second straight season.
North Lake hosts Dallas College Cedar Valley 6 p.m. Wednesday.