The Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Basketball team is the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I Region 16 champion once again.
The Grizzlies (25-8) picked up their fourth championship trophy in program history – and their first in seven years – after defeating the Mineral Area College Cardinals (23-9) of Park Hills 74-71 last Saturday afternoon at Lincoln University in Jefferson City.
“This was truly a team win,” Grizzly Basketball Head Coach Chris Popp said. “This wasn’t about one or two guys dominating play. It was a total team effort with crucial, timely contributions from a number of players.”
It took a team effort to overcome the 13-point deficit the Grizzlies faced early in the first half. Turnovers, fouls and missed shots by the Grizzlies allowed the Cardinals to take control quickly.
“We didn’t come out with the same energy on Saturday that we did on Thursday for some reason,” Popp said. “Our first five minutes weren’t pretty, but we pulled together and the guys fought back.”
The Grizzlies then went on an 11-0 run to pull within 2 points of the Cardinals. They finally took the lead at the 7:52 mark on a series of successful free throws by sophomore point guard Ricky Torres and redshirt freshman guard Radshad Davis. By halftime, the Grizzlies were up 34-26.
“We chipped away at it, and once we took the lead, we were able to maintain,” Popp said.
The Cardinals came out in the second half and did some chipping of their own, tying the game 40-40 within the first four minutes of the period. “Mineral Area fought. I thought we got their best shot. There were a couple of times when it felt like we were going to extend the lead, but it didn’t happen.” Popp said. “We got into a little foul trouble in the second half, and that hurt, but that was because Mineral Area was very aggressive.”
The teams battled back and forth through much of the second half. Although the Cardinals never reclaimed the lead, they did knot the score four more times in the period before the Grizzlies finally pulled away for the win.
“We never let that momentum swing happen again,” Popp said. “That’s been the difference in the past three games for us. Outside of the beginning of this game, the last three games we’ve never really let anyone put together four or five possessions against us. That’s maturity. I feel like our team has grown.”
The Grizzlies also continued hitting the glass hard and taking advantage of their trips to the free throw line. The Grizzlies grabbed 18 offensive rebounds to the Cardinals five Saturday, and out-performed them on both ends of the glass 49-31. At the charity stripe, the Grizzlies hit 28 of 35 for 80 percent. The Cardinals were 18 of 23 for 79.3 percent.
Davis proved most effective in both departments, grabbing a total of 11 rebounds – seven off the offensive glass – and hitting all eight of his free throw attempts. For the game, he had a team-leading 16 points, the last four of which came from the free throw line in the last seconds of the game.
“Radshad was clutch for us on the glass and at the free throw line, both against Mineral Area and Moberly in this tourney,” Popp said. “Unusually, he didn’t finish very well at the rim, but he made a living at the line. Over the course of the semifinal and final games, he was 19-20. Radshad came through in big moments, absolutely clutch.”
Other Grizzlies scoring in double figures were freshman guard Eric Lovett with 14, freshman forward Dontell Brown and sophomore forward Yannis Mendy each with 12, and Torres with 10.
“Ricky continues to be a warrior. He played all 40 minutes,” Popp said. “Yannis wasn’t aggressive enough, but for a stretch late in the game, he went to work.”
Freshman forward Burone Edwards also provided the team with a lift.
“Burone came up with two really big plays in the last minute-and-a-half,” Popp said.
With the win, the Grizzlies advance to the NJCAA District 4 Championship game hosted this Saturday by Region 4 champion Highland Community College, in Freeport, Ill.
The winner of the district game will advance to the NJCAA Division I Men’s National Basketball Championship Tournament March 19-24 in Hutchinson, Kansas.
For complete statistics of the Grizzlies’ games this season, log onto http://stats.njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2017-18/div1/teams/missouristateuniversitywestplains.
For more information about the Grizzly basketball program, visit the team’s website, https://wp.missouristate.edu/grizzly/bb/, or call 417-255-7991.