The career of long time Missouri Western Head Coach Tom Smith ended on Monday evening in the first round of the MIAA tournament. The Griffons fell to a hot shooting Northwest Missouri State team 65-43 in Bearcat Arena. The Griffons end the season with a 10-17 overall record.

The Griffons struggled during the first half against the Bearcats scoring just 14 points on 7-of-23 shooting. The Bearcats on the other hand made 10 long range shots in the frame going into the half up 35-14.

The Griffons missed their first three shots of the game while the Bearcats made 3-of-4 including two long range shots claiming the 8-0 lead just 2:12 into the game.

The Griffons cut the lead to 10-6 after Dzenan Mrkaljevic nailed to straight jumpers with 11:35 to play in the half. The rest of the frame was all Bearcats outscoring MWSU 25-8 the rest of the way.

Mrkaljevic and Alex Tuluka-Mfumupembe led the way with four points apiece while Cedric Clinkscales had seven rebounds. The Griffons did not attempts a free throw in the frame and went 0-9 from long range.

Back on February 20 Alex Sullivan had eight three’s against the Griffons. In the first half he made 6-of-10 three point shots for 18 points while they made 10-of-17 as a team. The Bearcast had an assist on all 12 of their field goals with Matt Wallace dishing out nine.

The Bearcats opened up the second half scoring the first five points opening up a 40-14 lead. The Griffons battled back going on an 11-0 run cutting the Bearcat lead to 15 at 40-25 with 14:00 minutes to play. The rest of the game belonged to the Bearcats as the Griffons did not have an answer for the Bearcat long range shootng.

The Bearcats finished with 15 long range shots with eight coming from Sullivan. He finished with 27 points while Deangelo Hailey dumped in 21 making 5-of-7 long range shots. As a team the Bearcats made 15-of-29 three’s and dished out 17 assists on 22 field goals. Wallace finished with 11 assists and as a team NWMSU had 22 points off 13 Griffon turnovers.

The Griffons had two playes score in double figures with Clinkscales and Mells both dumping in 10. Clinkscales collected is sixth double-double of the season snaring 10 rebounds. As a team MWSU made 8-of-10 free throws and 17-of-49 field goals.

Tom Smith ends his career with 618 overall wins with 448 coming at Missouri Western.

— MWSU Sports Information —