Pivotal GPAC road triumph ends .500 week

 YANKTON, S.D. – A fast-starting Morningside University squad proved the difference in a needed Great Plains Athletic Conference decision Saturday, Jan. 22.

The Mustangs scored 23 of the game's first 30 points and allowed the host Mount Marty University Lancers to close to within four just once as part of an 80-71 victory at MMU's Laddie E. Cimpl Arena. Head coach Trent Miller's squad, improving to 11-7 overall and 8-5 in the league, kept themselves just two and a half games behind GPAC-leading Briar Cliff University.

Sophomore guard Aidan Vanderloo (Sioux City, Iowa) led a hot-shooting visiting unit. He posted 19 points and grabbed five rebounds, hitting eight-of-15 from the field. Joey Skoff (Bellevue, Neb.), also a sophomore perimeter player, scored 12 points, going five-of-nine shooting-wise. Forward/center Ely Doble (Gretna, Neb.), a member of the Class of 2024, too, was five-for-nine from the field, highlighting a 10-point, six-rebound, four-assist afternoon. With those three plus senior forward Collin Hill (Jewell, Iowa), who put up 10 points and was only two rebounds short of a double-double typifying the Mustangs' efforts, Morningside was above 50 percent from the field overall and outside the arc.

Miller's crew is back home on the Allee Gymnasium floor of the Rosen-Verdoorn Sports Center Wednesday, Jan. 26. They host Northwestern College in another vital league battle set for a 7:45 p.m. tip-off.