We have a brand new updated website! Click here to check it out!

Author: Dave Riggert

Bearcats rally from 19 down to defeat Washburn

Posted on

NWMSUThe Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball team came back from a 19 point deficit to defeat Washburn, 83-76, on Saturday evening at Lee Arena in Topeka, Kan. Northwest moved to 10-5 on the year and 5-1 in MIAA play. Washburn falls to 11-3 on the year and 4-3 in conference action.

Conner Crooker had a team-high 19 points on 6-for-15 shooting. DeShaun Cooper shook off a rough start to finish with 16 points and six rebounds. Bryston Williams and Grant Cozad each had 10 points. Kyle Schlake had 10 rebounds for Northwest and added eight points.

Washburn pulled out to a 42-28 halftime lead after connecting on six three pointers. Down by double-digits throughout most of the second half, Northwest was able to pull it back to within nine, 63-54, with 7:11 remaining.

The Bearcats would score the next 12 points to take a 66-63 lead with 4:00 remaining in regulation. Washburn would pull it back to within one but Cooper answered with a three pointer, pushing the lead to 69-65.

With the game tied, 73-73, with 58 seconds remaining, Cooper hit another clutch layup and the Bearcats would hit seven free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

Northwest will host Northeastern State on Monday, Jan. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at Bearcat Arena. That contest was originally scheduled for Jan. 6 but was postponed due to weather.

— Northwest Sports Information —

Western women fall short at Pittsburg State, 74-69

Posted on

riggertMissouriWesternThe Missouri Western women’s basketball team battled once again but lost at Pittsburg State 74-69 on Saturday afternoon. The Griffons were led by Kyrsten Crawford as she scored a career high 15 points making 5-of-8 shots and 3-of-5 long range shots.

In a back and forth first half a three pointer at the buzzer by Tanner Tripp gave the Griffons women a 35-34 lead heading into the half. the Griffons jumped out to a 10-5 lead in the first five minutes of the half after two three’s one by Kyrsten Crawford and another by Sharniece Lewis. The Griffons kept up the pressure building its early lead to as many as seven at 18-11 and 21-14 midway through the frame.

The Gorillas battled back using a 11-4 run taking its first lead of the game at 25-24 after a layup by Antqunita Reed with 7:31 to play. The rest of the half was close with the Griffons outscoring the Gorillas 11-9 taking the one point lead into the locker room.

The Griffons had eight players score in double figures with Sharniece Lewis leading the way with 10 points. Quenisha Lockett, Tiffanie Abrams and Tiara Hall each had five points. The Griffons made 11-of-27 shots with five three pointers. The Griffons also outrebounded the Gorillas 16-14.

The Gorillas made 9-of-18 shots which included 2-of-3 from long range and 14-of-20 from the free throw line. Lizzy Jeronimus led the Gorillas with 13 points making 4-of-5 field goals and 5-of-6 free throws.

The Griffon women had a slow opening to the second half as the Gorillas outscored the Griffons 20-8 in the first 11 minutes of the half opening up their biggest lead of the game at 54-43 with 9:15 to play after two Alex Muff free throws.

The Griffons used the next six minutes to chip away at the Gorilla lead. They got as close as 67-63 after a S. Lewis jumper with 3:01 to play in the game. The rest of the game would be back and forth but the Gorillas came up with the 74-69 victory. The Gorillas improve to 11-4 overall adn 4-1 in the MIAA while the Griffons fall to 5-8 overall and 1-6 in MIAA play.

The Griffons shot better making 45.1-percent (23-51) from the field and 41.2-percent (7-17) from long range. The also made 16-of-24 free throws and outrebounded the Gorillas 31-27. Ten Griffons scored with S. Lewis finishing with 14 points while Lockett and Hall each had nine. Hall finished with eight boards for the Griffons.

The Gorillas made 50-percent (18-36) of their shots and 4-of-7 from the three point line. They also made 34-of-48 free throws. The Gorillas had three players in double figures with Jeronimus leading the way with 26 points making 16-of-18 free throws.

The Griffons return to road action on Wednesday, January 15 when they take on the 6th ranked Jennies of Central Missouri at 5:30 pm in Warrensburg, Mo.

— MWSU Sports Information —

Ross helps No. 21 Missouri avoid upset in return to Auburn

Posted on

MUAUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Earnest Ross made himself right at home in his old arena.

The former Auburn player hit four free throws down the stretch and Jordan Clarkson scored 20 points to lead No. 21 Missouri to a 70-68 victory at Auburn Arena on Saturday.

”You heard the boos,” Clarkson said. ”I think he quieted them down when he hit those free throws. It was a big win for him.

”He was more focused. You could see it in his eyes that he was ready to play on the defensive and offensive end. He finished the game out for us.”

Ross, who spent two seasons at Auburn before transferring in 2011, scored 16 points for Missouri (13-2, 1-1 Southeastern Conference). He made four straight free throws in the final 1:34.

”Coach told me to just knock the free throws down and to be calm and patient,” Ross said. ”That was what I did. I just took my time, believed in myself and knocked them down.”

The game went down to the final moments.

Unable to get off a tying 3-pointer, Chris Denson missed a layup with 5 seconds left but drew the foul for Auburn (8-5, 0-2). He made one free throw then Torren Jones stepped on the baseline after rebounding the missed second attempt.

Wes Clark batted away Tahj Shamsid-Deen’s long inbounds pass to end the game and Jabari Brown collected the ball just before time ran out.

Brown added 15 points on 4-of-13 shooting. Ross had seven rebounds and was perfect on eight attempts from the line.

Missouri dominated in rebounds with a 44-28 advantage and bounced back from an overtime loss to Georgia that snapped a nation’s-best 26-game home winning streak.

”We got crushed on the backboard,” Auburn coach Tony Barbee said. ”I thought that was where the game was won and lost, in the trenches. I thought defensively we played a great game. I thought offensively we executed fairly well, shooting almost 54 percent in the second half.

”But when it matters most, in those key moments, your execution has got to be at its highest. And in those key moments, those last three or four possessions, our execution was at its lowest in this game.”

Shamsid-Deen had 13 points and six assists for Auburn. Denson had 11 points despite a 3-of-10 performance in free throws.

Missouri shot 32.7 percent (17 of 52) from the floor but also made 31 of 41 free throws. Jones had 11 rebounds.

”I thought we showed great toughness,” Missouri coach Frank Haith said. ”We didn’t shoot the ball well but we rebounded well. That’s an area we struggled with the other night against Georgia.”

Auburn fared much better from the field, hitting 23 of 53 shots (43.4 percent). But Auburn also made barely over half from the line, 14 of 26.

Denson’s drive gave Auburn a 67-66 lead with 1:51 left. Missouri reclaimed the lead with two free throws by Ross.

Ross then blocked Harrell’s shot on the other end. He was Auburn’s leading scorer and rebounder in his final season before leaving, and shook off a steady stream of heckling from students.

”To come out and play my old school on the road, it was a great feeling,” Ross said. ”I’m glad we got the win.”

Auburn walk-on Alex Thompson, who had eight points, drew a charge against Clarkson with just over a minute remaining. But Denson missed his shot and Ross made two free throws with 29 seconds left to set up the final sequence with Auburn needing three points.

Thompson had scored just one point in five appearances this season. He played an increased role with starter Allen Payne limited to two minutes with a hamstring injury.

Before the game, Barbee also announced the indefinite suspension of reserve forward Chris Griffin for violating an undisclosed school policy.

Clarkson had hit three of four free throws after Auburn’s Matthew Atewe fouled out and was called for a technical, giving Missouri a 56-51 lead with 8:12 left.

Brown’s long 3-pointer with 7 seconds left had given Missouri a 33-30 halftime lead and capped a closing 8-0 run.

It was Missouri’s first visit to Auburn and only the teams’ second meeting.

— Associated Press —

Northwest women drop second straight on the road at Washburn

Posted on

NWMSUThe Northwest Missouri State women’s basketball team dropped a Saturday evening contest to Washburn at Lee Arena, 73-55. The loss moves Northwest to 4-9 on the season and 1-5 in MIAA play. Washburn improved to 9-5 overall and 4-3 in conference action.

Junior Ariel Easton had a team-high 15 points. She also had five rebounds and three steals. Ashleigh Nelson added nine points and Annie Mathews had a team-best nine rebounds to go along with eight points.

After trailing by nine at the half, 35-26, Northwest would pull back to within six with 12:20 remaining in the contest, 43-37 on a pair of Nelson free throws. But Washburn would go on a 10-0 run to pull away late.

Northwest will host Northeastern State on Monday, Jan. 13, at 5:30 p.m. at Bearcat Arena. That contest was originally scheduled for Jan. 6 but was postponed due to weather.

— Northwest Sports Information —

Freshmen lead Kansas to blow out win over K-State

Posted on

KULAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Andrew Wiggins is from Canada, Wayne Selden from Massachusetts and Joel Embiid from the African nation of Cameroon. None of them grew up around the Kansas basketball program.

None of them grew up around the Jayhawks’ rivalry with Kansas State.

So all week, the trio of freshmen – along with the rest of the Jayhawks – were subjected to videos on the rivalry. Kansas coach Bill Self wanted to drive home the importance that those games against the Wildcats have taken on over the years.

The message must have come through quite clearly.

Wiggins scored 22 points, Selden added 20 and the No. 18 Jayhawks routed the 25th-ranked Wildcats 86-60 on Saturday for their sixth straight win in the series.

”We wanted to put them in a mindset of the energy and the type of emotion this game has been played with in the past,” Self said. ”It might have helped. I don’t know.”

It sure seemed as if it helped. Embiid contributed 11 points and nine rebounds, and Perry Ellis scored 12 as Kansas (11-4, 2-0 Big 12) shot 56 percent and committed just seven turnovers.

”It just shows we’re the dominant team in Kansas,” Wiggins said.

The Wildcats (12-4, 2-1), who had won their last 10 games, lost their seventh straight at Allen Fieldhouse and for the 48th time in the last 51 meetings.

Nino Williams had 12 points and Thomas Gipson scored 10 to lead Kansas State, but top scorer Marcus Foster was held to just seven points on 3-of-12 shooting.

They have great depth. They’ve got so many weapons,” Wildcats coach Bruce Weber said. ”You try to take away something and you have to give something, and they made shots.”

Just about the only thing that didn’t go right for Kansas came late in the game, when Embiid threw an elbow that clipped Williams in the face. Embiid got a technical foul and was ejected, but a Big 12 official said he would not be suspended for Monday night’s game at Iowa State.

”Regardless of what took prior, you have to be tough enough to think, ‘Next play,”’ Self said. ”That’s frustrating to me that it would happen, even if it was a situation where it was retaliatory, and I have no idea if it was.”

Kansas State actually hung tough through the first 10 minutes of the game, finding a basket every time the frenzied crowd inside Allen Fieldhouse reached a throaty roar. But a couple of foul shots by Selden and a 3-pointer by Conner Frankamp set the Jayhawks off and running.

Tarik Black’s basket in the paint finished off a 9-2 surge, and a put-back by Ellis off his own miss a few minutes later wrapped up another 9-2 run and gave Kansas a 33-18 lead.

Selden, coming off a career-best 24 points at Oklahoma, knocked down a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer to send the Jayhawks into the locker room with a 45-28 cushion.

Suddenly, the 278th meeting between the schools looked like so many before it.

How impressive was the first half for Kansas? The Wildcats had been holding opponents to just 53 points per game during their 10-game win streak, yet allowed the Jayhawks to pile up 14 assists without a turnover and shoot 65.5 percent from the field.

As if things weren’t going perfectly enough for Kansas, Embiid knocked down a 3 from the top of the key to open the second half – he’d missed the first two tries of his career.

The Jayhawks partied hard the rest of the game.

There was the alley-oop dunk by Wiggins off a feed from Selden, and a nimble post move by Embiid that resulted in another dunk. And even when Wiggins threw the ball away for the Jayhawks’ first turnover, he atoned for it with back-to-back 3-pointers for a 58-34 lead.

Then came Wiggins’ biggest highlight, a one-handed slam that went through the rim with such force that the ball bounced the entire length of the floor the other direction.

In a sign of just how badly things were going for the Wildcats, they were hit with three charging fouls in a span of just a few minutes in the second half. It’s become rare enough to see one offensive foul in a game the way such calls are being made this season.

”It was an offensive game and we’re not an offensive team yet,” Williams said. ”We’re a defensive team and we let the offense dictate the game.”

— Associated Press —

HAAC expands to 12 teams with additions of Grand View & William Penn

Posted on

HAACThe Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC) Council of Presidents is pleased to announce that it has approved the applications of Grand View University of Des Moines, Iowa, and William Penn University of Oskaloosa, Iowa, for membership into the conference.

Currently members of the Midwest Collegiate Conference and Mid-States Football Midwest Conference, Grand View and William Penn will immediately join the conference to participate in administrative matters and strategic planning. Each institution will begin on-field competition in the conference during the 2015-16 academic year.

The HAAC will undergo an expansion from its current membership of 10 institutions to 12, marking the greatest number of schools to be a part of the conference during any point of its 43-year history. Peru State College was the most recent institution to join the conference, starting competition during the 2011-12 academic season. Baker University, Graceland University and Missouri Valley College have been members since the inception of the HAAC in 1971.

“I was instructed over the last four to five years to expand the conference and its geographic footprint,” said commissioner Larry Lady, who is serving in his 21st and final year in the role. “The addition of Grand View University and William Penn University are a great geographic addition and are both excellent institutions to join the HAAC, which we believe is one of the finest conferences in the NAIA.

Grand View and William Penn will raise the number of institutions who have held membership in the conference at any point during its history to 17. Both institutions will field teams that will compete in conference play in the following sports: men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s indoor track and field, baseball, softball, men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, and men’s and women’s golf.

“Grand View University is extremely excited about the opportunity to join the Heart of America Athletic Conference,” said Grand View Director of Athletics Troy Plummer. “As Grand View athletics has grown over the years and has added sports, we felt that it was necessary to look for a conference where all of our sports would have the opportunity to operate under the same umbrella. We feel the Heart of America Athletic Conference will allow us to enjoy the same quality competition and collegiality in which we have become accustomed to in the Midwest Collegiate Conference.”

“We are excited to be accepted into the Heart of America Athletic Conference,” said Greg Hafner, Athletics Director at William Penn. “This will provide us with stability and good competition for many years to come.”

The HAAC currently consists of the following institutions: Avila University (Kansas City, Mo.), Baker University (Baldwin City, Kan.), Benedictine College (Atchison, Kan.), Central Methodist University (Fayette, Mo.), Culver-Stockton College (Canton, Mo.), Evangel University (Springfield, Mo.), Graceland University (Lamoni, Iowa), MidAmerica Nazarene University (Olathe, Kan.), Missouri Valley College (Marshall, Mo.), and Peru State College (Peru, Neb.).

— HAAC Press Release —

Kansas State’s Hubert, Heit to play in All-Star games

Posted on

KSUKansas State running back John Hubert and long snapper Marcus Heit will be able to showcase their talents to NFL teams this month as they compete in various postseason all-star games.

Both players will play in the Medal of Honor Bowl on Saturday at Johnson Hagood Stadium on the campus of The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., while Heit will also compete in the Reese’s Senior Bowl, Jan. 25, at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala., a game that will be televised by NFL Network.

Hubert, a three-year starter, finished his career as the second-leading rusher in school history with 2,993 yards, which included his first 1,000-yard season in 2013. A product of Waco, Texas, Hubert also ranks second in school history in career 100-yard games (12), sixth in career touchdowns (28) and yards per carry (5.0), and seventh in career yards per game (65.1). Hubert was an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention pick by the league’s coaches this season, while he was named to the preseason watch lists for the Doak Walker, Maxwell and Walter Camp Player of the Year awards.

Heit was perfect on 111 snaps during his senior season and 363 in his three-year career. The Derby, Kan., native played in 36 career games.

— KSU Sports Information —

Royals sign catcher Brett Hayes to one-year contract

Posted on

RoyalsThe Kansas City Royals announced Friday that the club has agreed to terms on a one-year contract with catcher Brett Hayes for the 2014 season, avoiding arbitration.  Consistent with club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.

The 29-year-old Hayes had two stints with the Royals last season, batting .278 (5-for-13) with three doubles and a homer in five games.

He also hit .233 in 78 games at Triple-A Omaha, ranking second among Pacific Coast League catchers with 17 home runs.

Hayes was claimed off waivers from the Miami Marlins on November 2, 2012.  He and his wife, Elly, reside in McKinney, Texas.

— Royals Media Relations —

Kansas’ Sims selected to play in NFLPA Collegiate Bowl

Posted on

KUKansas running back James Sims has accepted an invitation to play in the 2014 NFLPA Collegiate Bowl on Saturday, Jan. 18. The game will kick off at 5 p.m. (CT), from the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.

Sims, who will suit up for the National team at the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, was the Big 12’s leading rusher in conference games with 92.1 yards per contest and finished the 2013 campaign ranked second in the league with 1,110 yards overall. That mark made Sims the first player in Kansas history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons. Sims rushed for at least 70 yards in nine of 12 games this season, including a career-best 211 and three touchdowns in KU’s win over West Virginia.

A two-time All-Big 12 performer and a native of Irving, Texas, Sims closed his Kansas career among the leaders in several categories. Sims’ 3,592 rushing yards rank third on KU’s all-time charts, his 34 career rushing touchdowns is second, and his breakout performance against the Mountaineers was the 15th-best single-game rushing total by a Kansas player.

The NFLPA Collegiate Bowl will be televised live on ESPN2. ESPNU will also air live broadcasts from practices on Wednesday, January 15 (9 a.m.-11 a.m.; 12-2 p.m. CT) and Thursday, January 16 (9 a.m.-11 a.m.; 12:30-2:30 p.m. CT).

Participants in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl have the unique opportunity to network with and learn from current and former NFL players. Under the guidance of National Team Head Coach Dick Vermeil and American Team Head Coach Denny Green, pro-football players and coaching legends will work with the game’s future stars, giving them first-hand insight on what it takes to win on and off of the field.

Five Jayhawks participated in the 2013 NFLPA Collegiate Bowl as Dayne Crist, Trevor Marrongelli, Toben Opurum, Josh Williams and Duane Zlatnik made the trip out to California for the week’s activities. Crist earned MVP honors after leading his National team to a 34-0 win in the game.

— KU Sports Information —

Copyright Eagle Radio | FCC Public Files | EEO Public File