Kitzelman Leads Vikings to Win

Seward, Nebraska ~ Senior Jared Kitzelman (Fremont, NE) led the men’s basketball squad to a 62-58 win over Concordia University on Wednesday evening.  The Vikings snapped a five game losing skid and gave the squad its third conference in of the year.

Things didn’t start out the best for Dana on the road.  The Bulldogs raced out to a 7-0 lead in the opening five minutes.  Dana missed its first six shots on the evening.  Teddy Cox (SR, Hawley, MN) finally got the Vikings on the board as he sank two free throws.  Dana would draw ever closer to the lead.  Finally, midway through he opening stanza Dana took its first lead of the game as Trent Mumma (JR, Bennington, NE) finished off a Viking fast break with a lay-up.  Dana did not look back from their and even stretched their lead to ten points as the half ended as Mumma made another uncontested lay-up.

The second half saw Dana stretch their lead to as many as 14 points.  Zeb Christensen (SR, State Center, IA) drained a 15-foot jumper to give Dana its largest lead of the evening.  Concordia would not roll over and give up.  The Bulldogs took a brief one point lead with four minutes left to go in the game.  Their lead and hopes would be short lived as Gabe Bross (SO, Omaha, NE) grabbed a missed shot by Trent Mumma and put it back up for a basket.  Doug Huston (SO, Olathe, KS) put the Vikings up five as he drained a three point shot with 49 seconds left.  Then Jared Kitzelman put the final nail in the Bulldog coffin as he hit two free throws with 30 seconds remaining.

The Vikings survived a poor shooting game, in which they shot less than 40-percent from the field.  Dana used a 43-31 rebounding advantage to seal its victory.  Jared Kitzelman had a team high 14 points and also pulled down a game high nine rebounds.  Trent Mumma was the only other Viking in double digits with ten points.  Eric Maassen (SO, Hancock, IA) continued his solid play from the bench by pulling down six rebounds and adding two blocked shots in 16 minutes of play.

The win moved Dana to 5-14 on the season and 3-6 in conference play.  Concordia drops to 2-14 overall and winless at 0-8 in the GPAC.  The Vikings currently sit in ninth place in the GPAC.  Dana has a week off before their next game at #21 Hastings on January 17^th.  Hastings beat Dana at home earlier in the season 60-55.  Tip off in Hastings is at 8:00pm next Wednesday.  The Vikings will make their homecoming on January 20^th  against Morningside (who is receiving national votes) at 4:00pm.

For more information, contact:


Shad Beam, sports information director, (402) 426-7389, sbeam@dana.edu

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Scott Guzinski, assistant Sports Information Director, (402) 426-7949, sguzinsk@dana.edu