SEDALIA, Mo. – The Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Basketball team is still looking for its first Region 16 win after falling Wednesday evening, Jan. 20, to State Fair Community College, 73-70 in Sedalia.
The Grizzlies are now 14-8 overall, 0-4 in Region 16 and 1-4 in Midwest Community College Athletic Conference (MCCAC) play.
“There were two major factors in the game – our turnovers and their big man having one of his best scoring nights this season,” Grizzly Basketball Head Coach Yancey Walker said.
That big man was Clint Robinson, who scored 25 points during the contest to lead the Roadrunners on the scoreboard. “We beat or tied State Fair in free throws, rebounds, second chance points and points off of made threes, but in the end, Robinson having a great night and giving away too many opportunities with live ball turnovers was too much for us to overcome,” the coach explained, pointing out 15 of State Fair’s 73 points came off Grizzly turnovers.
“Going in, we wanted to keep Willie Jimmerson and Ronnie Rousseau below their averages, and we did that,” he continued. “Rousseau goes to the line an average of eight times a game, and he didn’t shoot one free throw in our game. State Fair averages almost eight threes a game, and we held them to three total.”
Still Rousseau and Jimmerson scored in double figures, with 20 and 13 points respectively. Duante Stephens added 11 to the Roadrunner tally. As for three pointers, State Fair hit three of 15 attempts for 20 percent. Overall from the field they connected on 29 of 69 attempts for 42 percent and were 12 of 19 from the charity stripe for 63.2 percent. They also had 39 rebounds, 18 assists and six turnovers.
The Grizzlies, meanwhile, hit 27 of 64 attempts from the field for 43.3 percent, four of 23 shots from 3-point range for 17.4 percent, and 12 of 14 shots from the free throw line for 85.7 percent. They also recorded 46 rebounds, 12 assists and 14 turnovers.
Leading scorers for the Grizzlies were freshman guard Vonny Irvin and freshman forward Devonte Campbell, each with 15 points, freshman forward Mike Parks Jr. with 13 points and freshman guard Mike Asemota with 10. Campbell added 10 rebounds to his stat line to record another double-double performance.
“The frustration of this game comes from controlling all but one aspect of the game,” Walker said. “The reality is that, even if their big man had a great night, if we take care of the ball, it is nullified. Our only choice is to keep grinding to get better.”
The Grizzlies’ next game is another road test Jan. 27 at Region 16 rival Mineral Area College in Park Hills. After a Jan. 30 game at Region 16 rival Moberly Area Community College in Moberly, the Grizzlies return home to close out their season with games against St. Louis Community College on Feb. 3, College of Faith Feb. 6, Feb. 9 against State Fair and Feb. 15 against Faith Prep from West Memphis, Arkansas.
The latter, Walker said, was intended to be a scrimmage, but because the Grizzlies had to bow out of the Thanksgiving weekend tournament at Garden City Community College in Garden City, Kansas due to inclement weather, officials at Faith Prep agreed to make the meeting a game.
“We had the scrimmage in that time slot because I felt last year our games were too spread out coming down the stretch,” Walker said. “Faith Prep has agreed to change the scrimmage into a game in order for us to make up one of the two games we lost at Garden City.”
For more information about the Grizzly Basketball program, visit the team’s website or call the Grizzly Basketball office at 417-255-7993. Complete game statistics can be found here.