Photo by Jake Przytarski Dawson-Boyd’s Bentley Boike tries to put up a shot during their game against MACCRAY on Thursday. Dawson-Boyd defeated the Wolverines 84-64.

DAWSON – The Dawson-Boyd boys basketball team picked up its second Camden Conference victory of the season on Thursday in an 84-64 win over the MACCRAY Wolverines, improving to 3-3 on the season and 2-3 in conference play.

In the process, senior center Bentley Boike picked up his 1,000th career point on the opening basket of the game. Thrilled to reach the milestone, Boike humbly recognized the work of his teammates pushing him to be his best in practice as the key to reaching this career mark.

“It was pretty awesome, but I wouldn’t be here without my teammates,” said Boike. “Hats off to them for being there for me and pushing me to the best in practice. It’s all through teamwork that gets you to that point.”

Blackjacks coach Cory Larson pointed to Boike’s tireless work ethic and effort in practices and games as key traits in helping him to reach the 1,000-point mark.

“He’s just a good solid kid,” said Larson. “He shows up every day ready to work. I think that’s the one thing about him is he seemingly always gives his best effort in practice and in games.”

Following the pause in action to recognize Boike, the Blackjacks wasted little time finding their rhythm when play commenced as Romell Horton and Josh Anyasike each picked up their first points of the game to put Dawson-Boyd out in front at 7-3.

Quick to respond, the Wolverines took their first and only lead of the half moments later thanks to a 3-point shot and a 3-point play to follow that gave them a 12-11 edge before the Blackjacks went on a crucial run midway through the half.

Beginning with a pair of Boike free throws to retake the lead, the Blackjacks proceeded to push the lead to 26-14 on a 13-2 run that helped set the tempo for the rest of the half. The Wolverines would re-emerge with a run of their own shortly after to make it 31-24, but Dawson-Boyd started to heat up again down the stretch with a 13-5 run to take a 44-29 lead into the half.

Hoping for some stops to open up the second half of play but unable to get it done, Larson tipped his cap to the Wolverines for battling back and making it a close ballgame.

“There were times where we kind of preached trying to get multiple stops in a row, and I thought in the second half we probably didn’t do the best job of that,” said Larson. “When the lead went into half time up 15, and (we) certainly wanted to push that to let that grow to 20. Instead MACCRAY fought back. Give them some credit, they hit some shots and kept it around that 10-point range for much of the second half until maybe the last four minutes.”

Led by a strong second-half effort by the game’s leading scorer in Brady Kienitz with 24 points, the Wolverines rallied to cut the deficit to eight points at 59-51 midway through the half by outscoring the Blackjacks 25-15. In need of a spark, Dawson-Boyd received it moments later from Zach Durfee who forced a steal and followed it with a dunk – bringing the crowd to its feet and pushing the lead back to double-digits at 64-54.

Back in the driver’s seat, the Blackjacks outscored the Wolverines 20-10 in the final minutes of the game, resulting in an 84-64 victory.

With over a week to rest and regroup before their next game on Dec. 29 against Murray County Central in the Marshall Holiday Tournament, Larson is looking to fine-tune facets of his team’s play in hopes of improving as an overall unit.

“It’s always nice to get a W,” said Larson. “Still, there’s little things that we have to continue to improve on to get better as a basketball team.”

MACCRAY 29 35 — 64

DB 44 40 — 84

MACCRAY: Hoekstra 2-4 1-2 5, Kienitz 7-16 6-7 24, Asche 2-5 1-2 5, Kirking 5-18 2-2 15, Jaenisch 3-6 0-0 9, Cavaness 2-5 2-2 6.

DAWSON-BOYD: Husby 4-5 0-0 8, Horton 4-12 1-4 11, Schuelke 0-1 4-4 4, Anyasike 7-12 1-3 15, Durfee 4-10 1-2 10, Lee 4-7 7-7 16, Boike 5-12 8-10 18, Lindblad 1-1 0-0 2.

REBOUNDS: MACCRAY 26 (Jaenisch 6, Cavaness 6); Dawson-Boyd 40 (Husby 11, Anyasike 10, Boike 10). ASSISTS: MACCRAY 9 (Kienitz 3); Dawson-Boyd 11 (Boike 4). STEALS: Dawson-Boyd 7 (Anyasike 3). BLOCKS: Dawson-Boyd 0. FOULS: MACCRAY 21 (Jaenisch); Dawson-Boyd 13. TURNOVERS: MACCRAY 7; Dawson-Boyd 8.