JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A dominant final eight minutes by Lincoln turned the tide on the Missouri Western women’s basketball team as the Griffons suffered their 17th-straight road loss, 76-72 in Jefferson City Thursday night.
The Griffons led by 13 with 8:51 to go but Lincoln grabbed the lead with 1:47 left on the heels of a 21-5 run. During that run, Miliakere Koyamainavure, Sarafina Handy and LaQuinta Jefferson all fouled out for the Griffons with 10, 17 and 18 points respectively. Despite the run, and missing three of their top scorers, the Griffons had a chance to take the lead with three seconds remaining but Anna Rogers missed a three-point attempt and Kelsey Williams made two free throws to cap-off the comeback.
It was the team’s first loss of the season when at least three players scored 10 or more points. On top of double-digit nights from Jefferson, Koyamainavure and Handy, Ariana Novak scored 11 points. Jefferson led the Griffons on the glass with eight rebounds. Missouri Western had 19 turnovers, 14 in the second half, to 12 assists and forced 15 Lincoln turnovers. The Griffons stayed close on the glass, finishing with 30 rebounds to 31 for the Blue Tigers. MWSU finished shooting 49 percent from the field and 42 percent from three-point range and 70.6 percent at the free throw line.
The loss dropped MWSU to 8-9 on the year, 3-8 in MIAA play. Missouri Western will have another chance to break the road losing streak Saturday when they travel to St. Charles to take on Lindenwood.
The No. 25-ranked Benedictine women’s basketball team led wire-to-wire on Thursday night to earn the regular-season sweep over home-standing Peru State College.
Benedictine (16-6, 9-1 Heart) used a 54.5 percent shooting effort in the second half to hold off a late push by Peru State (6-14, 2-8 Heart) to earn a 66-58 win.
Jackie Ziesel outscored Peru State 5-2 over the first three minutes of the game before the Bobcats pulled even at 5-all.
That tie proved to be the only one of the game as the Ravens quickly regained the lead and never looked back.
By halftime, Benedictine led 34-32.
The Ravens opened the second half outscoring the Bobcats 15-6 over the first seven minute of the half to break the game open.
They pushed ahead by as much as 17 points when Jordan Kramer drained a 3-pointer with just over eight minutes remaining.
Peru State cut Benedictine’s lead down to single digits three four times over the final four minutes of the game but couldn’t get any closer than eight points.
Ziesel paced the Ravens with 16 points while Kramer finished with 12 points.
Benedictine’s bench outscored Peru State’s 27-12 anchored by the 13-point effort of Kristen Murphy.
The Ravens return home Saturday to host a 2 p.m. game against Avila University. Benedictine took the first game of the season over Avila back on Dec. 6, 55-44, in Kansas City, Mo.
MARYVILLE, Mo. -The Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball team entered Wednesday night’s game at Bearcat Arena against Lindenwood needing a win.
But the Bearcats faced a difficult task trying to break a modest two-game losing streak. They were facing the first place team in the MIAA and were playing without freshman point guard Justin Pitts, who missed his second straight game because of an ankle injury.
Overcoming adversity in a season builds character. The 2014-15 Bearcats proved once again that they have plenty of it. Northwest picked up a much-needed victory, beating Lindenwood 74-61.
“It was really important,” Grant Cozad said of the win. “We were on a two-game losing streak. To be home with the home crowd helped us. To get that monkey off our backs and get our confidence back is big to go on the road to Lincoln.”
Northwest improved to 14-5 overall and 7-4 in the MIAA, and Lindenwood dropped to 8-3 and 13-7.
“We wanted to play with emotion from the start and I think we did,” Cozad said. “Playing the number one team in conference definitely helps. It brings out the fire in you.”
Going without Pitts, who leads the Bearcats in scoring with a 16.1 points per game average, Northwest needed contributions from everybody. The Bearcats got it.
Cozad, a 6-foot-8 senior center, played a man’s game in the paint against Lindenwood’s 6-9 center Sam Mader. Cozad finished with 22, hard-earned points.
“I started off a little slow, trying to get the feel for it,” said Cozad, who had nine rebounds. “I kind of stepped up there and took it to them. I was ready for it. I had a couple of bad games leading up to this one. I needed to have a good one. I felt like I did. I played physical with him down low. I had fun. I like it physical. It was a fun game.”
Sophomore wing man Zach Schneider made sure the inside didn’t get clogged up by drilling seven three-pointers and finishing with 21 points.
“I could feel it in warm ups,” Schneider said. “I knew it was going to be a good game. I knew I was going to get open looks tonight.”
And junior Lyle Harris, filling in for Pitts, played a steady game at point, making several nice passes to Cozad and doing a great job driving to the basket for layups. Harris finished with a career-high 15 points.
“I just got to do my job,” Harris said. “Basically, that is it. I have to make sure my teammates believe in me and I believe in them.”
Most impressively, Northwest maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half.
A basket by Harris to start the second half, gave Northwest a 41-27 lead. The Bearcats’ advantage eventually grew to 50-32.
Lindenwood fought back, but needed a lot of time to close to 60-51 on a three-pointer by Darris Smith with about 6 minutes left.
Northwest quickly responded with a basket in the paint from Cozad and a three-pointer by Schneider with 4:32 left pushed the Bearcats’ lead to 65-51. Lindenwood never threatened again.
“Coming off those two losses, we got back to work,” Schneider said. “We had tough practices. This was our biggest rebounding margin this year, 32-18. That is the stat that sticks out to me.”
In the first 5 minutes of the game there were eight lead changes. The final one, a three-pointer by Harris propelled Northwest to a 10-8 lead that quickly grew to 15-10 thanks to a three-pointer by Schneider.
Northwest, particularly Schneider, remained hot from behind the arc and went into halftime with a 39-27 lead.
Schneider was on fire in the first half. He knocked down five three-pointers in eight attempts for 15 points.
The Bearcats also played strong inside behind Cozad and freshman Brett Dougherty. Cozad scored 10 points, going 4 for 5 from the field. Dougherty added five, including a three-point play that staked Northwest to an 18-12 lead.
From start to finish, Northwest proved it could play winning basketball while dealing with injuries.
“We have four injuries right now,” Schneider said. “We knew we were going to play a tight rotation with seven guys. Lyle stepped up big time and everyone else did, also. Anthony Woods and Brett gave us big minutes, too so it was good.”
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Frank Mason III scored 16 points with a couple of key shots in the go-ahead run and No. 9 Kansas held on for a 64-61 victory at TCU after his missed free throws Wednesday night.
The Big 12-leading Jayhawks (17-3, 6-1 Big 12), who had as much as a 13-point lead early, found themselves down after TCU scored the first seven points after halftime.
Mason’s driving layup with 13:26 left got the Jayhawks within 43-42 and started a 12-0 run that put them ahead to stay.
But a layup by Mason with 3:35 left was their last field goal. He then missed two free throws with 4.7 seconds left to leave TCU (14-6, 1-6) a chance to force overtime.
A long 3-point try by Charles Hill Jr. ricocheted off the back rim at the buzzer.
Kyan Anderson had 17 points for TCU, while Kenrich Williams had 13 points. Trey Zeigler had 12 points and 11 rebounds while Chris Washburn had 12 rebounds.
TCU, looking for another memorable victory over the top-10 Jayhawks, was within 59-57 on Zeigler’s three-point play with 37 seconds left. He grabbed a rebound of his own miss and made the putback while being fouled.
Kansas had gone almost three minutes without a score before Brannen Greene made five free throws in the closing stretch.
Two years ago, the Horned Frogs got their first-ever Big 12 victory when they lead throughout in a 62-55 win over then-No. 5 Kansas team. That gave the Jayhawks their consecutive losses for the first time in more than seven years.
TCU was ahead 37-36 when Anderson grabbed the rebound of his missed 3-pointer and was still open to hit a jumper to wrap up the spurt in the first 2 minutes after halftime.
That followed a 3-pointer by Anderson, which was TCU’s third shot of that possession. The Frogs started the half with Washburn surrounded by three defenders when he passed over them to Zeigler for a layup.
TIP-INS
Kansas: Leading scorer Perry Ellis scored the Jayhawks first five points, but also had two fouls in the first 76 seconds of the game, and didn’t play again until the second half.
TCU: The Horned Frogs, who were 13-0 in non-conference play, have already had two overtime losses in Big 12 play. They were coming off a loss at West Virginia on Saturday.
MARYVILLE, Mo. – Northwest Missouri State senior Ariel Easton matched her career-high 30 points against Lindenwood with 18 minutes, 14 seconds remaining in the second half Wednesday evening at Bearcat Arena.
Easton didn’t break her scoring record until 3:50 remained. Her scoring drought was good for the Bearcats on two fronts.
It showed Easton played team basketball and didn’t force up shots when Lindenwood made a conscious effort to shut her down.
The other positive point was the rest of the Bearcats stepped up and made baskets. It was an overall team effort that led Northwest to an 81-72 comeback victory.
“Our kids responded in the second half,” Northwest coach Michael Smith said. “I challenged them at halftime. I told them we needed some other people to step up.
“Obviously, Ariel was having a career night, but we knew in the second half they would try to make some adjustments. More importantly, Ariel played with poise in the second half. She didn’t try to do too much and allowed her teammates to get involved.”
After three straight nail biters in which the final outcome was twice decided by one point and the other by two points, the nine-point win was far more comfortable.
“It felt great,” said Easton, who finished with a career-high 34 points. “With four minutes left, I kind of thought about that. We need to play defense and play composed like we did tonight.
“We are learning from our mistakes. Last week we let one get away because of that.”
Statistically, the Bearcats played at a very high level in the second half. They shot a blistering 57 percent from the field and committed only six turnovers. They also caused Lindenwood to shoot 29 percent from the field.
The Bearcats have now won three of their last four games. They continue to show growth as they move out of the basement of the MIAA and start their climb up the standings.
“I think our kids pressed in the first half,” Smith said. “They knew what was at stake as far as two teams battling to move up in the rankings.”
When Easton scored her 30th point, Northwest trailed just 41-40. But one player wasn’t going to beat Lindenwood. Although the Bearcats stayed close in the first half because of Easton, they needed a couple of other players to find their shot.
It finally happened when the Bearcats were down 47-43. A 13-0 run by Northwest started with a mid-range jumper from Taylor Shull, who struggled with her shot against Lindenwood.
Northwest tied the game at 47-47 on a bucket by freshman Samantha Hurst and took the lead for good on a basket by freshman Bailey Smith.
Freshman Tanya Meyer made back-to-back buckets and junior Tember Schechinger drilled a three-pointer, giving Northwest a 56-47 lead.
“It gave me confidence in them,” said Schechinger of the freshmen. “It helps me trust them a lot more. It helps everybody trust them more.
“When your offensive game is going that means your defensive game will probably step up a little. It just helps that you can trust your teammates. It is great to see them come off the bench and be ready. They were ready to play tonight.”
The trey by Schechinger triggered a hot streak from her. She made a couple more long three-pointers. Her third of the game gave the Bearcats a 68-58 lead with 5:20 left. She finished with 15 points.
“It does a lot for us,” Easton said of Schechinger’s three-pointers.
Easton finally broke her career-high with a basket with 3:50 left, helping Northwest maintain a double-digit lead at 72-62.
The first half was the Ariel Easton show.
If only someone else other than Easton could have scored in the first half, Northwest would have gone into halftime with a lead instead of a 39-35 deficit.
Easton was hitting shots all over the court. She scored 27 points in the first half. The only other player to notch more than two points was forward Shelby Mustain, who had four.
Foul trouble hurt Mustain. She saw just three minutes of action.
Despite the scoring troubles for the rest of the Bearcats, the game remained close and would have been closer if not for a ridiculous three-pointer by Kassidy Gengenbacher late in the first half that banked high off the backboard, which gave the Lions the four-point advantage.
NORMAL, Ill. (AP) — DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell scored 20 points, hauled in a career-high 12 rebounds and led Illinois State to a 67-57 win over Missouri State on Wednesday night.
Daishon Knight contributed 14 points and Reggie Lynch added 12 for Illinois State (13-8, 5-4 Missouri Valley), which shot 44 percent from the floor on 55 attempts and controlled the boards 36-26. Akoon-Purcell sank all eight of his shots from the free throw line and his 20 points tied a career best.
Leading by three at the break, Illinois State opened the second with a 9-2 run capped by Knight’s 3-pointer to make it 37-27 with 17:40 to play and held on the rest of the way. Buckets from Missouri State’s Chris Kendrix twice cut the gap to seven in the final 2:22.
Camyn Boone led Missouri State (8-13, 2-7) with 13 points and Christian Kirk added 10 as the Bears lost their seventh straight.
After a record-breaking 2014 campaign, the Missouri Western women’s soccer team has received a Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
The award recognizes teams that exhibit fair play, sporting behavior and adherence to the laws of the game, as reflected by the number of yellow caution cards or red ejection cards they are shown by referees throughout the season.
Griffon Soccer received a bronze award for having no more than 10 cards during the season. MWSU finished the season 9-9 overall, winning more games than any team in school history.
Head Coach Chad Edwards became the program’s all-time wins leader and the team qualified for the postseason for the first time ever, dropping a hard-fought match in the MIAA Tournament. Along the way the Griffons broke more than 20 individual and team records.
Missouri Western was also recognized by the NSCAA for excellence in the classroom for the fifth straight season.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — West Virginia coach Bob Huggins and Kansas State counterpart Bruce Weber had vastly differing opinions of the No. 17 Mountaineers’ rough-and-tumble, 65-59 victory Tuesday night.
“I thought it was beautiful,” Huggins said. “I’ve never had an ugly win, ever.”
If ever there was one, though, this might have been it: The Wildcats turned the ball over 25 times, the Mountaineers 20, and the teams combined for 54 fouls in a herky-jerky affair.
All of which led Weber to declare the game, “Awful.”
“It’s just bad basketball, but they’re what, 17-3? I’d be happy too,” Weber said with a shake of his head. “It’s just their style. They make you play basketball.”
Tarik Phillip matched a career-best with 12 points for the Mountaineers (5-2 Big 12). Juwan Staten added 11 points, their leading scorer limited all night by foul problems.
The Wildcats played most of the way without Nino Williams, who had been averaging 21 points his last two games. The senior forward appeared to be dealing with a left knee injury, spending time on a stationary bike and then wrapping it in ice during the second half.
“He tweaked his knee,” Weber said. “Hopefully it’s not going to be a season-ending thing.”
Marcus Foster led the Wildcats (12-9, 5-3) with 15 points, but also committed six turnovers. Wesley Iwundu added 12 points, yet missed a crucial free throw in the closing minutes.
In fact, the foul line proved to be nearly as good defensively as the Mountaineers. Kansas State was just 20 of 35 from the stripe, including a 2-for-7 effort from Jevon Thomas.
“I’ve never been in a game like that,” Foster said. “It was like a fight.”
Considering the teams are two of the scrappiest in the Big 12, it was hardly a surprise that the game was played at a slogging pace that prevented either from gaining any momentum.
The teams combined for 27 turnovers in the first half alone, Kansas State getting whistled for a 5-second call on four occasions. They also combined for 25 fouls and shot 26 free throws.
Those are rugged numbers for a game, let alone a half — err, unless you’re Huggins.
“That’s what we do,” West Virginia guard Jevon Carter said. “We pick teams up full court, try to turn them over, make them uncomfortable. That’s just what we do.”
West Virginia led 49-41 midway through the second half, finally putting together a couple of solid offensive possessions. Phillip was the surprising catalyst, following up a three-point play with another bucket with 8:31 remaining to keep Kansas State at bay.
As the Mountaineers got into foul trouble — Jonathan Holton and Jaysean Paige had each picked up their fourth by that point — the Wildcats tried to make one last run.
Foster’s first free throw with 2:04 left made it 55-50, but the All-Big 12 guard missed the second of them. Another missed opportunity by Kansas State in a night full of them.
The Mountaineers were still leading 63-57 after Foster’s 3-pointer with 24 seconds left, but Staten made the first of two free throws at the other end to put the game away.
“When you play K-State, they’re probably the most similar team of anybody in the conference to us as far as getting all the grinding baskets and 50-50 balls,” Mountaineers forward Devin Williams said. “We knew what to expect coming into today.”
GOING DEEP
The Mountaineers used 12 players in the game, far more than a normal team. Part of it was foul trouble, but part of it was keeping fresh bodies on the floor to keep up their frenetic pace. “It wears on you,” Huggins said, “just wears on you. That’s the idea.”
MORE TURNOVERS
The Wildcats may have had 25 turnovers, but the Mountaineers weren’t a whole lot better. They committed 20 of them, and Kansas State actually had a 12-11 edge in points off turnovers.
TIP-INS
West Virginia: Won at Bramlage Coliseum for the first time in three tries under Bob Huggins, who coached the Wildcats in 2006-07. … The Mountaineers are 10-1 away from Morgantown.
Kansas State: Coach Bruce Weber was called for a technical foul for yelling at the officials late in the first half. … The Wildcats had won six straight against ranked teams at home.
UP NEXT
West Virginia returns home to face Texas Tech on Saturday.
Kansas State visits ninth-ranked Kansas on Saturday.
The Missouri Western baseball team was schedule to begin its 2015 season on Sunday, but the weather has forced their series at No. 17 Arkansas Tech to be moved up a couple days.
The Griffons and Wonder Boys will begin their four-game series with a doubleheader on Friday at 1:00 PM, before finishing the series with a doubleheader on Saturday at Noon.
Missouri Western is coming off a 32-20, 24-14 finish in 2014 that saw the team finish fourth in the MIAA and advance to the championship series of the MIAA Postseason Tournament.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — The injury bug couldn’t stop Michigan, so what chance did Nebraska have?
Zak Irvin had 14 points and 12 rebounds and the shorthanded Wolverines rode a strong second-half start to a 58-44 victory over the Cornhuskers on Tuesday.
Michigan, which lost leading scorer Caris Levert to season-ending foot surgery last week, played without guard Derrick Walton Jr. and forward Mark Donnal.
Walton, who averages 10.7 points and made a 3-pointer to force overtime in Saturday’s loss to Big Ten leader Wisconsin, was removed from the lineup shortly before the game because of a sore toe. Donnal was out with an illness.
Coach John Beilein still had enough on his bench.
“Guys just stepped up all over the place,” he said after giving scout-team center Max Bielfeldt a season-high 26 minutes.
The Wolverines (13-8, 6-3 Big Ten) led 23-18 at intermission and blew the game open after starting the second on a 13-2 run. Irvin closed the spurt with a 3-pointer and the Cornhuskers never got closer than eight points the rest of the night.
Aubrey Dawkins scored 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting and Bielfeldt added 12 points and nine boards for Michigan. The Wolverines shot 49 percent and were perfect (8 of 8) from the line.
Irvin said Michigan was itching to get back on the court after the tough loss to Wisconsin.
“We had a little bit of a chip on our shoulders because of the Wisconsin game and we took it out on Nebraska,” he said.
Shavon Shields had 14 points to lead Nebraska (12-8, 4-4), which fell to 0-5 against the Wolverines since joining the conference before the 2011-12 season. The Huskers were outrebounded 34-26.
The Cornhuskers shot an abysmal 31 percent (15 of 49) from the floor and seemed to miss no matter where they found open looks. They were even worse in the first half, when they made just seven of their 27 tries.
“I just thought they out-competed us and out-executed us,” Huskers coach Tim Miles said. “We just didn’t show enough heart.”
Beilein, who started three freshmen Tuesday night, said the latest injury and illness news has been frustrating.
“I have not been a pleasant guy to be around the last couple of days,” he said. “All you can do is work your way through it.”
—
TIP-INS
Nebraska: Guard Terran Petteway struggled from the field and finished with just seven points on 1 of 11 shooting. He entered the game averaging 19.6, second-best in the Big Ten. Petteway didn’t crack the score sheet until he made a 3-pointer five minutes into the second half.
Michigan: Guard Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman has seen his playing time increase since the Wolverines lost Levert and the freshman continued to earn his keep. He had nine points Tuesday, including a pair of layups during the decisive run.
“He’s just growing, little by little,” Beilein said. “He has the speed we need right now.”
UP NEXT
Nebraska visits Minnesota on Saturday.
The Wolverines travel to in-state rival Michigan State for a Sunday matinee.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A dominant final eight minutes by Lincoln turned the tide on the Missouri Western women’s basketball team as the Griffons suffered their 17th-straight road loss, 76-72 in Jefferson City Thursday night.
