Blazers Survive Scare from Suns, 83-81

IRVING, Texas – Dallas College North Lake's No. 2-ranked men's basketball team survived a gutsy effort from Dallas College Cedar Valley Wednesday night, winning 83-81 in the Blazer Dome.

Trailing 79-78 inside the last half minute, the Blazers (21-4, 7-0 Dallas Athletic Conference) needed a three-pointer from Bryson Smith to overcome the stern test the Suns (8-15, 1-6) put up in North Lake's penultimate league home game. It was the 15^th straight win for the Blazers, who improved to 12-0 in the Blazer Dome.

Smith finished with 27 points, while Ring Deng and Jakob Zenon each scored 19 for North Lake. Braylon Crosby had 26 points, Antonio Sisk 18, Jude Donovan 12 and Malik Conley 10 for Cedar Valley.

The Blazers were 21-for-23 from the free throw line. The Suns hit seven of nine from the stripe.

Cedar Valley led 61-60 just inside the midway point in the second half before North Lake went on a 6-0 run to take a five-point lead. The Suns responded by scoring the next five points to pull within one with 7:06 remaining.

With the score tied at 71, Donovan connected on a three-ball from the wing with 3:52 to go to give the Suns a three-point lead. Zenon answered with a 3 of his own 20 seconds later to knot it back up at 74. Cedar Valley used another 5-0 run to take a 79-74 lead around the 1:00 mark. Deng scored on a feed from Smith with 43.5 seconds on the clock to trim the deficit to 79-78.

Smith's triple 23 seconds later gave the Blazers a two-point lead. One possession later, he was fouled, and sank two free throws with 10 seconds to go to make it a two-possession game. Donovan's follow-up dunk beat the buzzer on the other end, but it was too little too late, and the Blazers survived.

Both teams hit 10 triples.

Deng went a career-high 12-for-13 from the free throw line. Randy Woolf scored all seven of his points in the second half, burying a critical 3-pointer from the corner in front of his team's bench that swung the momentum North Lake's way in the see-saw contest.

North Lake plays at Dallas College Mountain View 1 p.m. Saturday.