Mt. Mercy Men's Basketball

Balanced Mustangs roll by Judson

ELGIN, Ill. - Mount Mercy Coach Paul Gavin predicted the Mustangs would have a balanced attack this season.

So far he's right on the money.

The balanced Mustangs outscored Judson by 20 points in the second half Friday night and opened the 2014-15 basketball season with an 84-63 victory at the Lindner Fitness Center in Elgin, Ill.

How's this for balance: Eight Mustangs scored 12, 10, 10, 9, 9, 8, 8 and 8 points in the triumph.

Dondre Osborne led the way for Mount Mercy with 12 points. Ian Matos and Da'Quan Moore netted 10 apiece. Kevin Price-Major and Kyle Lamaak scored nine points. Alex Houston, Ben Struss and James Boonstoppel had eight points apiece.

Mount Mercy led by a slim point at halftime, 36-35, but the Mustangs dominated the second half.

MOUNT MERCY (84): Houston 3 2-7 8, Osborne 4 3-5 12, Matos 4 2-2 10, Moore 4 0-0 10, Struss 4 0-0 8, Boonstoppel 2 2-2 8, Murdock 0 0-0 0, Johnson 1 1-2 3, Misener 2 0-0 5, Price-Majors 4 1-4 9, Lamaak 3 3-6 9, Gogg 1 0-0 2. Totals 32 14-28 84.

JUDSON (63): Eck 3 2-3 10, Woodhouse 2 4-4 9, Galloway 2 0-0 4, Schwarz 3 4-6 10, Jackson 2 0-0 4, Pearson 5 2-4 12, Thomas 1 0-0 2, Goldston 0 0-0 0, Burton 1 0-0 2, Giilespie 0 0-0 0, Hill 2 0-0 6, McElrath 1 2-2 4, Graupmann 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 14-19 63.

Halftime - Mount Mercy 36, Judson 35. 3-point goals - Mount Mercy 6 (Boonstoppel 2, Moore 2, Osborne 1, Misener 1), Judson 5 9Eck 2, Hill 2, Woodhouse 1). Fouled out - none.

Mustangs pay tribute to absent teammate

There will be an empty chair for Mount Mercy men's basketball games this season at the Hennessey Recreation Center in honor of Danny DeBacker, a member of the team who was killed in a car crash by a drunk driver last month.

DeBacker's white home No. 20 jersey will be displayed on the bench in his memory and the team's shooting jerseys say "DD No. 20" on them.

He's gone but certainly not forgotten.

"I still struggle sleeping a little bit at night, because that's when I think about him," Mount Mercy Coach Paul Gavin said Tuesday after practice. "He was a great kid."

It's been a stressful year for Gavin and the Mustangs. He kicked four players off the team during the season last year, contributing to a rare 12-20 overall record and 3-9 finish in the Midwest Collegiate Conference.

"For the first time in my career I had to dismiss players," he said. "All four of them were starters. It was all at the same time. It changed things."

Read more...

DeBacker killed in automobile accident

Danny DeBacker, a member of the Mount Mercy University men's basketball and track teams, was critically injured in an automobile accident earlySunday morning in Davenport and died at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City Sunday afternoon.

DeBacker, 22, was a senior from Orion, Ill. He transferred to Mount Mercy last year from Black Hawk Community College.

Andrew Scott Adams, 21, from Orion, Ill., also was killed in the crash, according to the Quad City Times.

Kai Robert Miller, 23, from Davenport, was arrested at 6:34 a.m. Sunday and charged with Homicide by Vehicle-OWI (Operating While Intoxicated), according to the Scott County sheriff's department.

Witnesses told Davenport police Miller was driving a Hyundai XG at a high rate of speed when his vehicle broadsided a Hyundai Elantra driven by Adams. Police said alcohol was "the main contributing factor" in the crash that happened at 2:04 a.m. Sunday at 12th and Brady streets in Davenport.

Jacob Misener, one of DeBacker's teammates and friends at Mount Mercy, said DeBacker had gone home for the weekend to spend time with family andfriends. Misener said DeBacker was flown to Iowa City with a severe head injury and underwent surgery Sunday morning.

"He was hanging on by a thread all day," Misener said Sunday. "At around 2:30 (p.m.) they pronounced him as dead."

Misener said more than 50 people gathered at the UI hospital during the day.

"The whole team was there, his whole family, multiple students he went to high school with, multiple high school friends," said Misener, a Cedar Rapids Kennedy graduate and a senior at Mount Mercy. "It was a really crazy, emotional, indescribable day."

A prayer service for DeBacker was held Sunday night at the chapel on the Mount Mercy University campus in Cedar Rapids.

"It's a really rough day," said Misener. "It sounds cliché, but I told myself, 'Anybody but Danny.'

"You just loved him. He was kind, he was funny, he was charming. He wasn't cocky or anything like that. He was just a guy that you really wanted to be around.

"It's a sad, sad day."

DeBacker was pursuing a double major at Mount Mercy in psychology and biology. He played in 29 games for the Mustangs last season with five starts, averaging 3.1 points and 2.5 rebounds.

Service arrangements are pending, according to the Mount Mercy website.