WEST PLAINS, Mo. – The Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Basketball team got back on the winning track Tuesday night with a 74-42 victory over Independence (Kansas) Community College in Joe Paul Evans Arena at the West Plains Civic Center.
The Grizzlies, now 11-5, will close out the fall portion of their season Saturday, Dec. 13, by hosting Highland (Kansas) Community College at 7 p.m. in Joe Paul Evans Arena.
“This was a great night,” Grizzly Basketball Head Coach Yancey Walker said of Tuesday’s contest. “First, I want to thank The Bounce House for sponsoring the game, and I want to thank the volleyball teams and fans from Mtn. View-Birch Tree Liberty High School and Winona High School for attending the game. We were honored to have the opportunity to recognize their accomplishments one more time.”
In November, the Liberty Lady Eagles captured the Class 2 state championship, defeating 2012 state champions Fatima 2-1 for Mtn. View’s first ever title in volleyball. The Winona Lady Wildcats continued their domination of the Class 1 ranks, picking up their third consecutive state title this year.
“In order to keep trying to recognize the success of our area student-athletes, we will be honoring the fall West Plains High School Zizzer sports teams on Saturday,” Walker said. “We hope everyone can come out to Joe Paul Evans Arena.”
The Zizzers boys and girls cross country teams placed first in the Ozark Conference and district meets, and the girls placed seventh and the boys fourth at the state meet; the girls golf team hosted and took first place in the district golf match; the boys soccer team brought home the second place plaque from districts; and the football team made the class 4 playoffs and, for the first time, were Ozark Conference co-champions, according to Zizzer Athletic Director Greg Simpkins.
“This is a fun time of the year with all the Christmas parades and holiday activities taking place. A number of our boys and girls cross country, girls golf, boys soccer and football team members are making plans to attend Saturday’s Grizzly basketball game. We appreciate Missouri State-West Plains for recognizing the accomplishments of our student-athletes,” Simpkins said.
As for Tuesday’s game against Independence, Walker said the Grizzlies played “pretty well” defensively. “We wanted to make a point to not let them get going from the 3-point line. I felt like we did a pretty good job of that. They were 0-10 from the three in the first half and only made two in the second half,” he said.
The Grizzlies’ defense stifled the Pirates’ offense in the first, only allowing them 12 points. After scoring the first point of the game, the Pirates were held scoreless for nearly five minutes while the Grizzlies scored 10. From there, the Grizzlies continued to dominate the game, going into halftime with a 34-12 advantage and outscoring the Pirates 40-30 in the second half.
“Holding a college team to only 12 points in a half is quite an accomplishment, but to do so holding them to 12.1 percent shooting from the field made it even more impressive,” Walker said. “The first half was probably our best defensive half of basketball in the past couple of seasons.
“Even with the big lead, we were not happy with our offensive execution in the first half,” he added. “To their credit, our guys responded in a big way. For the second half, we had 12 assists on 15 baskets and shot 57.7 percent overall. We did a much better job of attacking the paint and shot 85 percent in doing so.”
For the game, the Grizzlies hit 28 of 61 attempts from the field for 45.9 percent, 10 of 33 attempts from 3-point range for 30.3 percent and eight of 13 shots from the free throw line for 61.5 percent. They also recorded 32 rebounds, 20 assists, five steals, six blocks and 10 turnovers. Leading scorers were freshman guard Dazhonetae Bennett with 15 points, freshman forward Ngor Barnaba 11 points and sophomore guard Jameel Moore and freshman guard Keeton Tennison each with 10 points.
The Pirates hit 17 of 58 shots from the field for 29.3 percent, two of 15 attempts from 3-point range for 13.3 percent and six of 14 shots from the free throw line for 42.9 percent. They also recorded 33 rebounds, eight assists, six steals and 15 turnovers. Leading scorer was Jerry Melton with 10 points.
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.