DeSalme gets 100th career win as Coyotes cruise past Ottawa
By: David Toelle, KWU Sports Information

Kansas Wesleyan jumped out to an 8-2 lead, but saw Ottawa tie things up at 8-all, before the Coyotes took a 24-10 lead as they cruised past the Braves 74-55 on Saturday night at Muir Gym.

It was also career win number 100 for Wesleyan coach Tommy DeSalme in just six seasons of coaching. DeSalme was 84-67 in five seasons as coach at Sterling (Kan.), and is 16-3 this season, his first at KWU.

“I thought about it earlier this season,” DeSalme said. “I knew it was coming up, but I didn’t think about it much. Josh (Berry) was there for a lot of those wins, and he kinda headed up the thing after the game.”

DeSalme was more excited about finally winning more than six straight than the big 100.

“There’s been about six times since I’ve been coaching that we’ve won six in a row, but we could never get to seven, and to finally get seven in a row feels good.”

After Ottawa tied things up at 8-all with 16:07 left in the first half on a Bryant Derley layup, Wesleyan went on a 16-2 run, to go up 14 with 11:09 left on a bucket by Dupre Richardson.

The Braves would get as close as six, 24-18, thanks to an 8-0 run with 7:54 left, but a 16-4 Wesleyan run would end any suspense as the Coyotes led 40-22 with 3:07 left in the first half.

DeSalme said he felt most proud of the Coyotes tonight for the effort they had as a team.

“I was real proud of our guys tonight,” he said. “It was the first time all season that we had a complete team effort. The bench contributed, the starters played well, it was really nice to see.”

The bench did play well. Wesleyan had 21 points off the bench, including six from Richardson and five from Cameron Jackson. Josh Berry had a stellar night off the bench, with three points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals in just over 23 minutes of action.

“Tony wasn’t having a great night, and he saw what Josh was doing out there, and he was okay with leaving him out there,” DeSalme said. “Josh had a special night tonight.”

Ottawa would cut the Coyote lead to 13 just before the break on a Nathan Haussmann basket.

A 9-2 run to start the half would give Wesleyan its first 20-point lead of the night with 17:35 left in the second half.

The Coyotes would hold Ottawa without a three pointer all night long (0-13), and forced 20 turnovers. David Birch, who scored 26 points in the teams’ first meeting in December, was held to only six points on 2-for-6 shooting.

Wesleyan (16-3, 9-1) would not let Ottawa get closer than 16 the rest of the night and would build its biggest lead of 24 with 5:25 left on a pair of Trey Sims free throws following a technical foul on Phil McClintock.

Steve VanArsdale would be the only bright spot on the night for Ottawa (8-10, 3-6) as he scored 28 points and had 11 rebounds for the Braves. He was the only Ottawa player in double figures, as three other players scored six each for the Braves, as they shot 21-of-50 from the field for 42 percent, including 0-for-13 from behind the free point line. Ottawa also struggled from the foul line, going 13-of-25 for 52 percent.

Anthony Smith led the Coyotes with 22 points, while Sims added 14 as the Coyotes shot 27-of-65 from the field for 41.5 percent. Marcus Faubion led the Coyotes with eight rebounds, while Jackson added six, and Smith and Berry had five each as Wesleyan won the battle of the boards 45-36.

The Coyotes travel to Southwestern on Thursday, before returning home to face arch-rival Bethany on Saturday.

-- KWU SI --