Dubuque bests Coe on the road

CEDAR RAPIDS - There was no home court advantage in the Iowa Conference men's basketball tournament Thursday night.

Dubuque used an 11-2 run to start the second half and beat Coe, 71-59, in a semifinal round game at Eby Fieldhouse.

The third-seeded Spartans (22-5) will host No. 5 seed Wartburg (15-12) Saturday in the championship game. Wartburg upset top-seeded Buena Vista, 93-88 in overtime, last night at Storm Lake.

Coe battled back from an 11-point deficit in the first half to trail by only 32-29 at halftime.

The Kohawks scored the first basket of the second half on a rebound put-back by senior JT Vonderhaar to pull within one.

But that was the last hurrah for the Kohawks (16-10).

Dubuque ran off the next 11 points to build a 43-31 lead. Coe never got closer than seven points the rest of the game.

'We were much better offensively in the second half,” Dubuque Coach Robbie Sieverding said. 'That five minute stretch to start the second half was probably the difference in the game.”

The Spartans had two other difference makers and a great supporting cast.

Junior Andre Norris led Dubuque with 21 points. Senior Gage Heffernan, who played two years at Kirkwood, had 15.

'Our team has done as good a job as any against Norris,” Coe Coach Bryan Martin said. 'I think he's averaged 28 points his last five games. He had to work for his points.

'Heffernan has always been a tough matchup for us. You figure if you can keep those two under control, you take your chances with the other three.”

That didn't work so well, though. Senior guard Lucas Ware scored 13 points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds, and sophomore Kain Arthofer came off the bench to score 15 points for the Spartans.

'They're a hard matchup,” said Coe senior Matt Daoust, who had eight points. 'They're loaded with athletic guys.”

The Dubuque defense also harried Coe, contesting nearly every shot.

'They just never let us get comfortable,” said Martin, whose team was playing its fifth straight game without junior point guard Jacob Timm. Timm injured an ankle in the Kohawks' 87-66 loss at Dubuque on Feb. 7.

Senior Max Schmarzo and Vonderhaar scored 13 and 12 points, respectively, to lead Coe.