By Jim Henry
jhenry@joplinglobe.com
It was a play expected more during a Harlem Globetrotters basketball game than a Missouri Southern contest.
The Lions led 55-45 midway through the second half of Saturday night’s season opener against Newman when seniors Tony Webb and Vincent Ateba made a play that brought a loud roar from the fans at the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
Webb jumped in the lane near the basket to catch a pass from Skyler Bowlin from the backcourt, and before returning to the floor, Webb bounced the ball backwards between his legs to a trailing Ateba, who went up for a two-handed dunk.
“Skyler threw it up the court, and I saw the big 6-10 guy behind me,” Webb said. “I sneaked a look and saw Vince coming. I’ve always thrown it off the board, but with the 6-10 guy behind me, it's hard for him to bend down. So I bounced it to Vince, and it was a royal flush.”
“I knew the ball was coming,” Ateba said. “He usually gives me the ball in the fast break. I was expecting it off the backboard. I was surprised when he bounced it.”
Lions head coach Robert Corn also wasn’t looking for the bounce pass between the legs.
“That hasn't been something we’ve worked on much,” Corn said with a laugh. “That was at a crucial stage of the game. We were up 10 and we were pretty stagnant at that time. You could just see once Tony and Vincent made that play, the energy level got extremely high. We went on a pretty good roll after they did that.”
The Lions were in complete control from that point, finishing with an 87-64 victory over the Jets from Wichita, Kan.
“We came out pretty solid,” said senior forward Matt Monroe, who had a career-high 16 points. “We need to work on taking care of the ball and make sure we own the boards all the time, especially at home. Overall I thought we did well.”
The Lions continue their season-opening homestand tonight against Central Bible College from Springfield. Tipoff is at 7.
Ateba matched his career high with 24 points against Newman to lead four Lions in double figures, and his 11 rebounds gave him seven double-doubles with the Lions.
“As a senior, I need to bring leadership more,” Ateba said. “Usually I'm a quiet leader, but I need to be more vocal, and I want to lead by example, too.”
“I love bringing energy to the game, I love making runs,” Webb said. “When the running game gets gong, it excites the people.”
The Lions will be looking to reduce their turnovers tonight.
“We have to take care of the ball better,” Corn said.
“There is no way we can win a lot of games and have 26 turnovers. That's way, way too many.”
But overall, Corn was pleased with the Lions’ opening-night performance.
“We played a Division II team, and we won by 23, so you have to be pretty pleased from that aspect,” he said. “Obviously, there are areas where we have to continue to work on, continue to improve.
“I thought our defense was pretty good. They shot 31 percent from the floor, and we'd take that game in, game out. And we shot right at 49 (percent). I thought our shot selection was pretty good for the most part, especially the second half.
“I thought we did a nice job of executing our sets. We have to get more out of our motion (offense) than what we got, but we did get the ball inside a lot.
“Once we started cutting off of it, we got some positive things.”
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