Morningside College men’s basketball head coach Jim Sykes won the 200th game of his Mustang coaching career when Morningside defeated 19th-ranked St. Thomas University 86-78 on Dec. 18 at the Cruzin Classic in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Morningside College men’s basketball head coach Jim Sykes won the 200th game of his Mustang coaching career when Morningside defeated 19th-ranked St. Thomas University 86-78 on Dec. 18 at the Cruzin Classic in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

The Mustangs won their fifth game in a row to improve their season’s record to 8-4.

Sykes has a 200-113 career record for a school-record .639 winning percentage at Morningside. His 200 men’s basketball coaching victories is also a Morningside record.

Morningside shot 59.3 percent in the first half on its way to a commanding 48-31 lead at the intermission. The Mustangs finished the contest with a shooting mark of 51.0 percent from the field for their third straight game over 50 percent.

Danny Rudeen led the Mustangs with game-high totals of 22 points and seven rebounds, while teammate Steve O’Neill was right behind with 20 points. Rudeen did much of his scoring from the free-throw line, where he converted 13 of 14 attempts, while O’Neill lit it up from the outside with a dazzling six-for-seven shooting performance from the 3-point arc.

Jared Kolbush, Andrew Christen, and Drew Dau also scored in double figures with 10 points each, while Ryan Tegtmeier had seven tallies.

St. Thomas outrebounded the Mustangs by a slight 36-34 margin despite a nine-rebound effort by Christen.

Christen also had five blocked shots, while Rudeen led the Mustangs with three steals.

Sykes guided the Mustangs to Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) regular season championships in 2004, 2008, and 2009 and to NAIA Division II National Tournament berths in 2006, 2008, and 2009. Sykes’ teams have produced four of the eight 20-win seasons in Morningside history.

He was named the 2008 GPAC Coach of the Year after he led the Mustangs to a 29-4 record and a No. 1 NAIA Division II national ranking for much of the season. Morningside set a school record with the 29 victories. Sykes led Morningside to a 28-7 record and an Elite Eight finish at the NAIA II National Tournament during the 2007-08 campaign. Sykes also received the GPAC Coach of the Year award in 2004 when the Mustangs were GPAC co-champions.