Mankato, Minn. -- Cam Martin scored 28 points in his Lions debut, but the No. 25 Missouri Southern men's basketball team ran into a hot-shooting St. Cloud State squad and lost to the 18th-ranked Huskies 89-77 in the season opener at the MIAA/NSIC Challenge.
Martin had 28 points on 10-of-14 shooting for the Lions (0-1) as he added six rebounds and went 7-for-8 from the free throw line. Reggie Tharp scored 17 points on 8-of-13 shooting and dished out six assists. Ted Brown had 12 points and eight rebounds, while going 6-for-6 from the field. Braelon Walker and Kinzer Lambert had eight points each.
SCSU (1-0) was led by 24 points and 12 rebounds from Sean Smith.
Both teams traded small leads for most of the first half, until a dunk by the Huskies' Smith with 2:50 left in the first half gave SCSU a five-point lead (34-29). A layup the next trip down by Smith increased the lead to six and after a Lions' bucket, a three from Smith gave the Huskies a 39-31 lead at the break.
The Huskies increased their lead to 12 points (45-33) after a dunk from Smith with 18 minutes left in the second half. A layup from Martin with 14:50 left cut the lead to six (50-44). A three-point play from Gage Davis pushed the Huskies lead up to 14 (64-50).
The SCSU lead was 12 (74-62) with 6:31 left in the second half, but a 13-4 run by the Lions over a three and a half minute stretch cut the lead to just three after a three from Lambert made the score 78-75 with just under three minutes to play.
The Huskies, however, answered and closed the game on an 11-2 run to secure the win.
Southern shot 49 percent from the field, but just 40 percent from the free throw line and 25 percent from long-range. The Lions out-rebounded the Huskies 38-35 and held a 50-46 advantage with points in the paint. Thirteen offensive rebounds for the Lions led to 12 second-chance points and Southern held a 6-0 advantage in fast-break points.
Southern will be back in action tomorrow afternoon as the Lions will take on Minnesota State at 3 pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment