WEST PLAINS, Mo. – It’s a sweep for the Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Basketball team, as they downed the No. 16 Iowa Western Community College Reivers for the second time this season Saturday afternoon in the final day of the Holiday Inn Toy Toss Classic.
The Grizzlies upped their record to 15-1 with 96-91 victory over their counterparts from Council Bluffs in Joe Paul Evans Arena at the West Plains Civic Center. The Reivers’ only two losses this season have been at the hands of the Grizzlies.
“We beat Iowa Western up there, and they moved up in the polls,” Grizzly Basketball Head Coach Chris Popp said, pointing to the 99-85 victory Nov. 10 over the then 20th ranked Reivers in Council Bluffs.
“I feel great for our guys. They were ready to play this game,” he added.
The Grizzlies showed it in the first half when they jumped out to an early lead and went into the halftime break sporting a 51-41 advantage.
GAME PLAN
“We came out and followed the game plan, attacked the paint, got the ball inside,” Popp explained. “Iowa Western allows you to throw it in because they are huge. They challenge you to score over them. We did what we were supposed to do, and their bigs ended up in foul trouble. That was a big key.”
The Reivers came back in the second half, however, and put the game in question by riding the hot hand of Patrick Dembley, who scored most of his 21 points in that period.
“They pushed back. Just like they did at their place when they came back and took a lead, they came out in the second half and shot it from the perimeter. Dembley hit some tough shots as they made that run,” Popp said.
It also didn’t help that the Grizzlies hit a dry spell offensively. “We went through a stretch when we didn’t score well,” the coach said. “One thing great teams do, they get stops when the ball doesn’t go in. Not that we are there yet, but we were able to get the key stops when we needed them.”
KEY PERFORMANCES
A key figure in those stops was freshman guard Niekie Thomas.
“Kie guarded their best player and did a great job on him, especially in the last two minutes when the game was in question,” Popp said. “We forced a couple of turnovers and bad shots late, and Kie was a big part of that. What he does best is guard the ball, and that was a huge factor for us.”
The Grizzlies also got productive minutes from sophomore point guard Ricky Torres. Despite nursing an injury, Torres recorded his sixth double-double with his 14 point, 10 assist performance.
“Ricky deserves a lot of credit. He was playing on one wheel and still had a double-double. And, he didn’t just play one end. He played through a lot of pain and stepped up big,” the coach said.
Freshman forward Burone Edwards also turned in his third double-double performance of the year with 16 points and 11 rebounds. “Burone just keeps getting better and better,” the coach said. “He’s been huge for us and does it in ways other than scoring.”
Redshirt freshman guard Radshad Davis added 19 points and seven rebounds. “With Ricky’s injury, he had to step in and play the point. Fortunately, he can play anywhere on the floor,” Popp said.
Freshman forward Dontell Brown was the Grizzlies’ leading scorer with 21 points. “Dontell had his best performance of the year,” the coach said. “He only had five rebounds, but all were offensive and were big.”
Sophomore forward Yannis Mendy had 13 points and four rebounds. “Yannis played well. He didn’t finish well and still ended up with 13 points and four rebounds,” the coach said.
“Everybody who played contributed to the win,” he added.
OTHER GAMES
In the tournament’s other games, the Grizzlies defeated Faith Prep of West Memphis, Arkansas, 114-85 Friday; Iowa Western downed North Arkansas College from Harrison 119-84 Friday; and Faith Prep beat North Arkansas 111-108 Saturday.
TOY TOSS
Saturday also was the day of the second annual Grizzly Toy Toss. For free admission to the game, fans were encouraged to bring a new or gently used soft toy to the Grizzly/Reiver game to toss onto the court when the Grizzlies scored their first points. Approximately 300 toys were collected and turned over to the local Toys for Tots campaign sponsored by the Marine Corps Reserve.
“Thank you to everyone who donated and participated and to Jack McNevin who we worked with at Toys for Tots to distribute what was collected,” Popp said. “It’s all about helping others. A mindset of service is one of the key traits we talk a lot about in our program. This group of guys has been great with that, and events like the Toy Toss remind us how many giving people we have in this community.
“We also want to thank Holiday Inn for sponsoring the tournament and doing all they do for us, and West Plains Schools, and the BETA Club in particular, for collecting toys at the schools,” he added.
The club sponsored a contest to see which classroom collected the most toys, and the winner was Tori Richardson’s third grade class.
FINAL GAME OF FALL
The Grizzlies will close out the fall portion of their schedule Friday, Dec. 15, when they travel to Memphis, Tennessee, to face Southwest Tennessee Community College at 5:30 p.m. “They’re a perennial power. It will be another big challenge for us,” the coach said. “The focus is on the academic side of things this week as we are in finals. Then, we’ll head down to Memphis for a tough one on Friday.”
For complete statistics of the Grizzlies’ games this season, visit http://stats.njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2017-18/div1/teams/missouristateuniversitywestplains.
For more information about the Grizzly Basketball program, visit the team’s website or call 417-255-7991.
Stay up to date with Grizzly Athletics and Grizzly Booster Club news by signing up for text alerts at http://remind.com/join/wpgrizz or text “@WPGrizz to 81010.