Title Trio - Morningside makes history with resounding rebound

SIOUX CITY, IOWA – Add another milestone marker reached for the tradition-rich Morningside College men's basketball program.

In front of a happy home crowd inside Allee Gymnasium and the Rosen-Verdoorn Sports Center Wednesday, Feb. 5, head coach Jim Sykes' Mustangs hit the century mark for the second time in 2019-20, but more importantly, rebounded from their first loss of the campaign with a high-flying 102-77 triumph over Midland University that featured a pair of 50-point-plus halves. As the fans milled out of the Maroon's home, word filtered out about National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics' No. 10-ranked Dakota Wesleyan University being upended at home by a red-hot Briar Cliff University squad, locking up Mside's program-record-setting third straight Great Plains Athletic Conference regular-season championship for the top-ranked D2 Mustangs which was the school's seventh overall.

A juggernaut 62-point bench performance, led by a single-game personal career-high from junior center Trey Brown (JR/Gretna, NE ) (Gretna, Neb.), powered Morningside to the conference-clinching victory. Sykes' crew needed every bit of it early on as the Warriors opened the contest dropping in seven three-point buckets to keep neck-and-neck and even lead over the opening 20 minutes before the Mustangs managed to open a 51-42 halftime advantage. The second half was a different picture, as Mside was white-hot from the field overall, hitting 21 of 34 attempts for a stratospheric 61.8 percent clip which included going six of 11 from outside the arc compared to Midland converting at less than 35 percent overall and a tepid 23.5 percent rate from three-point range.

Brown finished with 32 points and 13 rebounds for his third double-double of the year. He didn't stop there, though, as he also dished off four assists and blocked two Midland shot attempts. Senior forward Trystan Cummins (SR/Ankeny, IA ) (Ankeny, Iowa) added to the staggering bench number, canning three treys for nine points. Junior forward Zach Imig (JR/Gretna, NE ) (Gretna, Neb.) and senior guard Alex Borchers (SR/South Sioux City, NE ) (South Sioux City, Neb.) also found themselves in double figures with 13 and 11, respectively, as Imig was a rebound shy of a double-double and also dished off five assists.

Morningside (24-1, 16-1) takes to the road Saturday, Feb. 8, for a top-10 D2 clash with Dakota Wesleyan University. Game time at the World's Only and Famous Corn Palace in Mitchell, S.D., is 6 p..m

NOTES: Imig, the conference assist leader, upped an impressive streak of multiple-assist contests to 22 … Freshman guard Conner Hill (FR/Jewell, IA) (Jewell, Iowa) made himself a memory down the stretch, driving in for a lay-up with 1:36 to go to allow the home side of the scoreboard to reach triple digits.