SEDALIA, Mo. – The Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Basketball team picked up a key Region 16 road win Wednesday night, Feb. 11, when they defeated the State Fair Community College Roadrunners 78-51 in Sedalia, Missouri.
The win boosts the Grizzlies’ overall season record to 20-8 and their region record to 4-2. The nationally-ranked Mineral Area College Cardinals (22-2) of Park Hills, Missouri, stand at the top of the region with a 5-1 record. Three Rivers College (21-7), Poplar Bluff, Missouri, also has a 4-2 region record. The Moberly Area Community College Greyhounds (18-9) are 2-4 in region play, and the Roadrunners (4-20) are 0-6 in the region.
Grizzly Basketball Head Coach Yancey Walker complimented Roadrunner Head Coach Kevin Thomas and his players on their approach to and planning for the game. “They are in a tough spot, but they have continued to work and be diligent. They spread their offense out, and they used several unconventional defenses to try to keep themselves within striking distance,” Walker said.
“To that point, we handled everything they threw at us pretty well,” he continued. “Our guards attacked the paint and played through our post players very well. Consequently, Ngor Barnaba, Terrel Martin-Garcia and Craig Eubanks had 51 points together, and most of those came from inside the 3-point line.”
The Grizzlies took control of the contest at the beginning and never relinquished their lead. At halftime, they were up 42-25, and they outscored the Roadrunners 36-26 in the second half.
Overall, the Grizzlies connected on 33 of 67 shots from the field for 49.3 percent, 10 of 28 3-point shots for 35.7 percent and both of their free throw attempts for 100 percent. Leading scorers were Barnaba, a freshman forward, who had 21 points. He was followed by Martin-Garcia, another freshman forward, who had 17 points, and Eubanks, a sophomore guard, who added 13 points.
The Grizzlies also recorded 34 rebounds, 16 assists, four blocks, nine steals and eight turnovers.
“For the most part, we took good threes and we converted their turnovers into points,” Walker said. “Taking good threes is a compliment to our guys because we had to pass up some early shots that were open to get inside out threes or get them off of three or more ball reversals. By doing that, we shot almost 50 percent from the field. We also shared the ball well again. Almost half of our baskets came off of an assist.”
The Roadrunners connected on 19 of 50 shots from the field for 38 percent, five of 19 3-point shots for 26.3 percent and eight of 13 free throws for 61.5 percent. Leading scorers were Clint Robinson with 19 points and Joshua Bailey with 17. The Roadrunners also had 34 rebounds, 13 assists, four blocks, three steals and 19 turnovers.
“We defended their threes a lot better this game, especially in the second half,” Walker said, noting the Roadrunners only hit two of their 12 3-point attempts in the second half.
The Grizzlies will take the court again at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17, in Poplar Bluff to face the Three Rivers Raiders. “We’ll have our work cut out for us at Three Rivers Tuesday, but our goal has been to be playing our best basketball in February and March. I feel as though we are doing that,” Walker 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.