By Anvil Welch
awelch@joplinglobe.com
Missouri Southern and Pittsburg State shared a trait in winning basketball games in the 14th annual Freeman Sports Medicine/Chris Tucker Memorial Classic on Friday night.
Neither head coach, however, appreciated the necessity of playing a very improved second half.
Missouri Southern, pulling away in the second half after leading just 31-30 at intermission, triumphed 73-62 against Mid-America Christian of Oklahoma City.
Pittsburg State, leading 26-25 at the half, built a 22-point lead in the second half in winning 65-49 over Lincoln of Jefferson City in the opener in the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
Said Southern coach Robert Corn: “It wasn’t a pretty win. But it was a good win. I haven’t seen a bad win.”
Said PSU coach Gene Iba: “It was a first game (for the Gorillas). Obviously, there will be a lot of things to work on. But, all-in-all, it wasn’t a bad first game.”
Southern and PSU switch opponents today with PSU meeting Mid-America Christian (0-6) at 5 p.m. and Lincoln (2-1) facing Southern (3-0) at 7.
Southern, 73-62
Skyler Bowlin scored 19 points to head a balanced attack — five players tallied eight or more points — and dished out five assists for the Lions.
Bowlin 6-of-11 accuracy from the field included 3-of-4 treys.
The Lions also got 12 points from Matt Monroe, who was 6-of-9 from the floor, and 11 from Vincent Ateba. Monroe and Ateba also combined to grab 15 rebounds.
The Lions built a 16-point lead in the second half with 6:07 left in the game.
Southern opened the contest with an 11-2 lead before the Evangels used a 9-0 burst to catch up.
Mid-America was able to actually lead only twice in the game at 28-26 late in the first half and 32-31 early in the second.
The Evangels, however, pulled within 43-40 at 12:49 on Charlie Shorter’s second trey in a row.
Southern began pulling away as Jason Adams’ dunk off a Monroe pass gave the Lions a 51-42 lead midway through the half.
Adams finished with three dunks in scoring nine points.
Southern committed 20 turnovers to 27 for the Evangels and led 37-27 on the boards. Mid-America Christian shot better from the field — 46.9 percent to 42.9.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Corn said. “We had too many turnovers in the first half. We made poor decisions. We weren’t strong with the ball.
“We also were impatient against their zone (in sinking 13-of-33 from the field). We had too much passing the ball around the perimeter without going inside. As a result, we didn’t shoot free throws.
“We’ll have to play better against Lincoln,” Corn added.
The Evangels, an NAIA Division I entry under Willis Holley after winning an NCCAA title in 2007, received 16 points from Brandon Williams, 15 from Tyron Goldsmith and 14 from Shorter.
Pittsburg St., 65-49
The Gorillas had a pair of double-figure scorers in Spencer Magana (13) and Ivan Evans (11).
Magana, who started 10 games for the Gorillas last season, hit 4-of-5 treys.
“We did some decent things in the second half,” Iba said. “We struggled early trying to get into sync. We have an awful lot of new guys.
“We turned the ball over too much in both halves (committing 20 overall),” Iba said. “We rebounded better in the second half.”
Evans’ six rebounds paced an overall advantage of 41-37. The Gorillas shot much better from the field — 45.8 percent to 25 for Lincoln.
Lincoln got 16 points from Kyle Wilde, who was 8-for-8 from the foul line, but its three leading scorers entering the game shot a woeful 7-of-40 from the field.
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