MOBERLY, Mo. – The Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Basketball team remains undefeated today following two victories at the Worldwide Recycling Equipment Classic at Moberly Area Community College in Moberly, Missouri.
Friday, Nov. 7, the Grizzlies defeated Planet Athlete Academy, Phoenix, Arizona, 79-63, and Saturday, Nov. 8, they downed Allen County Community College, Iola, Kansas, 87-71. Their record now stands at 5-0, the first time since the 2010-11 season that the Grizzlies have won their first five games of the season.
Grizzly Basketball Head Coach Yancey Walker was pleased with his team’s efforts in both contests. “Once we step back and look at (the Planet Athlete Academy) game, we’ll see we did a lot of really good things. Craig Eubanks was three assists from a triple-double, and if Ngor Barnaba had scored 2 more points, we would have had three double-doubles in one game. We did a lot of things that good teams do.”
Eubanks, a sophomore guard, had 16 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the evening, while Barnaba, a freshman forward, recorded 8 points and 10 rebounds. The other double-double performance came from freshman forward Terrel Martin-Garcia, who had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Freshman guard Dazhonetae Bennett led the team in scoring with 19 points.
Overall, the Grizzlies hit 29 of 71 attempts from the field for 40.8 percent, six of 21 3-point attempts for 28.6 percent and 13 of 21 free throws for 61.9 percent. They also recorded 51 rebounds, 21 assists, 15 turnovers, three blocks and seven steals.
“We dominated the glass, with Craig, Terrel and Ngor having 14 offensive rebounds between them,” Walker said. “We made good adjustments, especially on their shooters, and that allowed us to get more easy looks in transition.
Even so, we didn’t attack or finish well enough in the first half,” he continued. “They had a very good shot blocker, and we let that deter us too much. In the second half, we were more aggressive going to the basket.”
Walker also said the Grizzlies incorporated a new zone defense set into their bag of tricks. “It took us a little getting used to, but once we did, we got a lot of open looks, and it showed because we shot almost 50 percent in the second half,” he explained.
For their part, Planet Athlete Academy hit 22 of 61 attempts from the field in the game for 36.1 percent, seven of 24 3-point attempts for 29.2 percent and 12 of 16 free throws for 75 percent. The team also recorded 30 rebounds, 13 assists, 16 turnovers, six blocks and three steals. Leading scorers were Chad Miller with 17 points, Kam Ritter 16 and Lamous Brown 11.
Saturday’s effort against Allen County was even better. “This was the performance we had been looking for. We executed the defensive game plan, and we finally got a lot of looks out of our offense that got us the shots we wanted,” Walker said.
“Our focus was to not let Allen County get anything going. Teams like that are dangerous if they start building confidence. We held them to 20 points in the first half, but our goal was to keep building our lead in the second half. We turned up the pressure and did exactly that. It was a good feeling as a coach because, by the 8 minute mark, everyone had played and all but one of our guys had scored,” he added.
The Grizzlies held a 31-20 advantage at halftime, and outscored Allen County 56-51 in the second half. Overall, the Grizzlies hit 31 of 68 attempts from the field for 45.6 percent, nine of 25 shots from 3-point range for 36 percent and 16 of 21 free throw attempts for 76.2 percent. They also recorded 40 rebounds, 23 assists, 14 turnovers and four blocks. Leading scorers were sophomore guard Jameel Moore with 14 points and Eubanks, freshman guards Keion Peoples and Keeton Tennison each with 11 points. Garcia led the Grizzlies on the glass with 12 rebounds.
Allen County hit 22 of 56 attempts from the field for 39.3 percent, eight of 19 3-point attempts for 42.1 percent and 19 of 24 shots from the charity stripe for 72.4 percent. The team also recorded 32 rebounds, eight assists, 20 turnovers and two blocks. Leading scorers were Josh Sweet with 26 points, and Courtney Stockard with 21.
The Grizzlies will face a true road test Wednesday, Nov. 12, when they face Southwestern Illinois College at 7 p.m. in Belleville. “This will be a good test for our young team,” Walker said. “Being 5-0 feels good, but it’s a step in the process.”
For more information about the Grizzly Basketball program, visit the team’s website at http://wp.missouristate.edu/grizzly/bb.htm or call the Grizzly Basketball office at 417-255-7993. Complete game statistics can be found at http://stats.njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2014-15/div1/teams/missouristateuniversitywestplains.