White Hot Win - Sizzling shooting enables Mustangs to close out unbeaten first half

SIOUX CITY, IOWA – Twelve straight points played a big role for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics' Division II top-ranked Morningside College Saturday, Jan. 10.

Locked in a nip-and-tuck battle with Great Plains Athletic Conference rival Northwestern College over the early portion of the opening half, head coach Jim Sykes' squad used the run from the 11:42 to 8:32 mark to open a 13-point lead in front of a happy Maroon crowd gathered inside Allee Gymnasium of the Rosen-Verdoorn Sports Center. From that point, the margin continued to grow, as Mside narrowly missed hitting the 60 mark in the opening frame, leading 57-36 at the break, and ended only two points shy of a second triple-digits total for the season in a rousing 98-69 victory.

The road to standing 18-0 overall and ending the first half of the 2019-20 conference slate with a perfect 10-0 mark was paved with offensive balance. Behind a white-hot 64.4 percent overall field goal effort and draining three-pointers at an equally stratospheric 58.3 percent clip, junior guard Zach Imig (JR/Gretna, NE ) (Gretna, Neb.) (15 points), junior center Trey Brown (JR/Gretna, NE ) (Gretna, Neb.) (14 points), senior forward Ben Hoskins (SR/Wayne, NE ) (Wayne, Neb.) (13 points), senior center Tyler Borchers (SR/Le Mars, IA ) (LeMars, Iowa) (13 points), senior guard Alex Borchers (SR/South Sioux City, NE ) (South Sioux City, Neb.) (12 points) and freshman guard Will Pottebaum (FR/LeMars, IA) (LeMars, Iowa) (10 points) found themselves in double figures. Imig, who became the 33^rd member of the program's 1,000-point club just three days prior, added four rebounds and five assists to his afternoon; Alex Borchers, who joined Hoskins in canning three three-pointers, turned in three assists, three steals, a blocked shot and three rebounds to go with his scoring output; and Brown was also near the top of other categories with four assists, three rebounds and a blocked shot to help spotlight his 14-point day.

Morningside begins the second half of loop action Wednesday, Jan. 15, hosting Doane University. Game time is 8 p.m.

NOTES: Sykes' squad holds a two-and-a-half game advantage on the GPAC standings at the halfway point. Since 2017-18, the Mustangs are 41-6 in their last 47 conference contests.