WEST PLAINS, Mo. – The Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Basketball team knew it would it would take a strong effort to beat the seventh-ranked junior college team in the nation, and that’s exactly what they turned in Tuesday night, Jan. 27, in Joe Paul Evans Arena at the West Plains Civic Center.
The Grizzlies played smart and took advantage of their opportunities to earn an 82-72 victory over the Mineral Area College Cardinals, Park Hills, Missouri. The win ups the Grizzlies’ overall season record to 17-7 and their Region 16 record to 3-1. The Cardinals, ranked in the top 10 by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), are now 21-2 on the season and 4-1 in region play. It was the Cardinals’ first loss since Nov. 5.
“Going in, we knew we had to take advantage of our opportunities to beat Mineral Area because they weren’t going to beat themselves,” Grizzly Basketball Head Coach Yancey Walker said. “We also wanted to make them handle some adversity. I felt like we did both last night.”
The Cardinals proved why they are one of the best teams in the nation when they quickly took charge of the game and built a 10-point lead eight minutes into the contest. The Grizzlies battled back, though, and took a 4-point lead with 1:30 left in the half. The Cardinals erased it quickly, though, to go back up by 2, but freshman forward Terrel Martin-Garcia had the last word when he made a layup with just seven seconds left, sending the teams into the halftime break tied 42-42.
“I told our guys at halftime that the next time we had a 4-point lead, I wanted to stretch it to eight instead of giving it back,” Walker said. “To their credit, they did exactly that. We got it to four at the 9:21 mark in the second half then built it from there. We also had several good defensive stands late in the game to seal the victory.”
Overall, the Grizzlies hit 25 of 46 shots from the field for 54.3 percent, six of 11 attempts from 3-point range for 54.5 percent and 26 of 40 attempts from the free throw line for 65 percent. They also recorded 33 rebounds, 18 assists, four steals, three blocks and 20 turnovers.
“We had too many turnovers, but most of them were dead ball turnovers, so we got to set our defense,” Walker said. “The last time we met on Jan. 10, we missed shots inside the paint, missed long threes and consequently gave up several transition baskets. That didn’t happen this game. We had great shot selection, we attacked in transition, we got to the foul line and we defended them very well at the 3-point line. We had different people step up throughout the game.”
Leading scorers for the Grizzlies were Garcia with 21 points, and sophomore guards Craig Eubanks and Jameel Moore with 15 and 13 points, respectively. Garcia turned in another double-double performance by grabbing 10 rebounds to go with his 21 points.
The Cardinals hit 27 of 63 shots from the field for 42.9 percent, five of 23 shots from 3-point range for 21.7 percent and 13 of 18 free throw attempts for 72.2 percent. They also recorded 25 rebounds, 18 assists, 11 steals, one block and 14 turnovers. Leading scorers were Randy Holmes with 16 points, Greg Tucker 15 points and Jalen Norman 12.
Walker said he would like to thank Colton’s Steakhouse and Grill for sponsoring the game. “They take such great care of us over all of the holidays when the cafeteria is closed. We really appreciate all that they do,” he said.
Walker reminded fans to tune into the new “Above the Rim” streaming live video segment at 10 a.m. every Monday at www.ihigh.com/msuwestplains to learn the latest news on the Grizzlies as they continue their march through the 2014-15 season. Those who cannot tune in live can view the segment later in the archives of the website. Fans also may ask Walker questions through Twitter by using the hashtag #GrizzlyTalk, or they may e-mail questions to AboveTheRim@MissouriState.edu.
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.