• Sophomores Willie Guy of Cedar Rapids and Zach Hobbs of Mesa, Ariz., lead the Bears with 17 points apiece
• Bears pull away from a 41-37 halftime lead with a 49-point second half
• All five DMACC starters score in double figures

Sophomores Willie Guy of Cedar Rapids and Zach Hobbs of Mesa, Ariz., led five players in double figures with 17 points apiece as the DMACC men's basketball team opened the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) DII Men's Basketball Championship with a 90-67 win over Southeast (Neb.) Community College (SECC) April 20 at Danville, Ill.

Sophomores Ryan Schmitt of Van Meter, Mark Bradshaw of Chester, Penn., and Christian Haffner of Gresham, Wis., added 15, 14 and 12 points respectively as the Bears, seeded second and ranked third in the NJCAA Division II poll, improved to 18-5 for the season.

DMACC started slowly and trailed 22-13 midway through the first half. Then Schmitt, Bradshaw and freshman Goaner Billiew of Denison ignited a 15-3 run that got the Bears a 28-25 lead with less than five minutes remaining in the half.

DMACC led 41-37 at halftime and took control of the game in the first four minutes of the second half with an 13-0 run that got the Bears a 54-37 advantage. Haffner and Hobbs started the run with back-to-back three-pointers and Hobbs drained another shot from beyond the arc one possession later. Bradshaw and Schmitt added two-pointers in the paint.

SECC, which fell to 13-8, closed to 59-51 before a 13-2 run put the Bears up 72-53 with less than eight minutes to play. DMACC led by as many as 27 points late in the game.

The Bears shot 55 percent from the field, hitting 32 of 58 field goal attempts. They were 9-of-25 from three-point range and 17-of-24 from the free throw line. Hobbs hit four of nine three-point attempts and Haffner was 3-of-8.

SECC came away with a 41-39 advantage on the boards with Schmitt getting a double-double with 11 rebounds and Bradshaw coming away with eight. Guy led the Bears in assists with 12 and in steals with three.

The DMACC men's basketball team will play Mott Community College (MCC) in the quarterfinals at 8 p.m. today. MCC, seeded seventh, defeated tenth-seeded Johnson County Community College (JCCC), 57-47, in another first-round game on April 20.