Thomas Goes Off for 26 as Men's Basketball Defeats Sterling on Opening Night
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Sterling (0-1, 0-0) | 36 | 39 | 75 |
|
Hastings (1-0, 0-0) | 36 | 46 | 82 |
Hastings, NE – The Hastings College men's basketball team opened the 2023-24 season by defeating Sterling 82-75 on Saturday evening inside Lynn Farrell Arena.
The Warriors came out hot in the first half opening up an 21-11 lead but Reggie Thomas and the Broncos would not let this one get away and newcomer Nolan Sughroue drained a three to make 21-14. Sterling countered with a three from Lucas Briar. Hastings countered with a three from Grady Corrigan to make it 24-17.
After getting a stop, Thomas made his way to the rack getting the tough layup to go to make it 24-19 but the Falcons had another answer with an Austin Mooch three. Then Thomas came right back buring a three followed by a couple of free throws to make it 27-24. Then following a steal from Ben Hageman, Danilo hit a driving layup to get to within one. After Sterling pushed the lead back to three, Hageman drained a three to tie things at 29 as the teams would battle to a 36-36 tie at the break.
The game remained tight early in the second half and then just before the midway point of the second half, Hastings grabbed a bit of momentum when Massimo D'Amato and Thomas connected on back-to-back threes to put the Broncos up 53-47 as the Warriors called a timeout.
The Broncos maintained a consistent three to six point lead into the final five minutes of action. After Sterling made if a four point game on a Jayden Garrison three, Thomas fed the ball to Tyrique McMurrin to go back up 65-59 and then Quinn Johnson drained a corner three as Hastings now led 68-to-59 with 3:37 to go.
Sterling was only able to get to as close as five the rest of the way as Hastings won 82-75.
The Broncos hit nearly 53 percent (28-for-53) of its shots while the Warriors connected on just 43 percent (28-for-65).
Thomas was the leading scorer with 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting as he pulled down five boards and dished out five assists. Corrigan and McMurrin poured in 13 each as they combined to hit 9-of-17 shots from the floor. Johnson added seven points while Hageman and Danilo Matovic each added six points.
Hastings edged out the Warriors 37-to-30 on the boards while both teams dished out 13 assists.
Hastings moves to 1-0 on the year and will be back in action Friday Nov. 3 hitting the road to compete in the Concordia Classic and will take on No. 19 William Penn with tipoff set for 3:00 pm in Seward, NE.
