The Dordt Defender men’s basketball team will travel to Orange City, Iowa to face Bellevue and Viterbo on Friday and Saturday, November 6 and 7 at a classic hosted by Northwestern. The Friday game tips off at 4:00 and the Saturday game at 2:00.
Bellevue is 3-1 this season and won three games in a row to start the year before falling to Briar Cliff in a low scoring game on October 31, 64-56. Briar Cliff and Bellevue played on October 24 to start the season and the Bruins won that game 82-79.
The Bruins are scoring 73.5 points per game and allow 63.3 points per contest. Bellevue also converts 47.7 percent of its field goals while opponents make 40.9. Bellevue has a 37.8-28.5 rebounding advantage limit teams to 34 percent three-point shooting.
Lewis Hayes is scoring 13.8 points per game with 5.0 rebounds and Keshawn Bruner has a 10.3 points per game average to go with six rebounds. Jaylen Wiltz and Jonah Brown are both averaging 9.5 points per game for a balanced attack and Jemeil King is scoring 8.5 points per game. King leads the team with 5.5 assists per game and Bruner is the leader in rebounds.
Viterbo is playing in its season opener on Friday night against Northwestern and had a 15-14 record in 2019-20. Tyree Young scored 15.3 points per game last season with 7.1 rebounds and Noah Fredrickson added 13.2 points per game and Jack Monis chipped in with 11.9 points per gam and Robert Cunitz had 9.7. The VHawks return their top five scorers from last season with Lowden Rockweiler completing the quintet with an 8.7 points per game average.
The Defender men are 1-0 after surviving a game at Kansas Wesleyan on October 28 by an 83-80 margin. Dordt converted 45.3 percent of its field goals in that game and were outrebounded 41-30. Dordt did convert 30 percent of its three-point shots while limiting Kansas Wesleyan to a 4-22 day from the arc.
Jesse Jansma scored 17 and Jacob Vis added 15 with Garrett Franken chipping in 14. Bryce Coppock came off the bench with 10 points and three assists and Cade Bleeker scored nine and he had a team high six rebounds.
The Defender men posted a 22-9 record last season with a 13-7 GPAC mark.
Dordt’s returners include Garrett Franken, Jesse Jansma, Cade Bleeker and Ben Gesink. Franken, Jansma and Bleeker started all 31 games for Dordt last season and Gesink started 30.
Franken scored 15.9 points per game with a team high 7.5 rebounds and he converted 47.4 percent of his field goals. Jansma and Bleeker scored 12.3 and 10.2 respectively and both relied significantly on the three-point shot with Jansma converted 53 and Bleeker 64. Gesink’s average was 7.5 and had over two assists per game while Jansma led the team with nearly three assists per game.
Last year’s Defender team outscored teams 86.1-76.1 and outrebounded teams 39.7-33.5. Dordt also had a 39.2 success rate from the three-point line and held opponents to 44.4 percent field goal shooting.
Dordt resumes play on Wednesday, November 11 when the Defenders travel to Presentation to face the Saints in a 7:00 tipoff. Dordt opens GPAC play on Saturday, November 14 at Midland in Fremont, Nebraska.
