Orange City, Iowa – The Dordt Defender men’s basketball team was able to hold off a Bellevue rally and secure a 70-63 non-conference win on Friday afternoon, November 12 in a game hosted by Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa.
The Defenders fell behind 6-2 early but took the lead at 7-6 with a pair of Jacob Vis free throws. The lead went back to the Bruins but a Bryce Coppock basket tied it 14-14 and a Caleb Harmsen three-point shot gave Dordt a 17-14 lead and the Defenders never trailed again. The difference was 24-20 with 6:18 left in the half and Dordt went on a 10-2 run to close the half with Jacob Vis scoring as time expired for a 34-22 halftime lead.
Luke Rankin got a lay-up with 11:41 left in the game for a 52-36 lead but the Bruins responded with a 10-0 run over the next three minutes to get within 52-46 and the Bruins crawled all the way to within 61-60 with 2:48 left in the game. Back to back layups by Rankin extended the lead to 65-60 and three free throws with under a minute by Rankin in affect put the game out of reach and Bryce Coppock’s basket made it 70-61. A basket at the buzzer by Bellevue made the final 70-63.
Dordt was 27-53 from the field for 51 percent success and converted 5-15 three-point shots for 33 percent.
Bellevue was limited to 26-56 shooting for 46 percent and 4-15 from the arc for 27 percent.
Both teams had 31 rebounds and Dordt forced 13 turnovers while committing 11.
Rankin scored 19 points and had four rebounds with four assists.
Coppock had 16 points and five rebounds with three assists.
Jacob Vis and Cade Bleeker added 13 and 10 respectively.
Bellevue was topped by Eric Pierce with 16 points and Justin Motley with 14 points.
Dordt will take a 5-1 record into their contest with Viterbo on Saturday afternoon at 2:00.
