By Jim Henry
jhenry@joplinglobe.com
Jason Adams’ favorite dunk came off a set play.
“The straight-cut play where ‘Q’ (DaRell Crittendon) threw it, that was my favorite,” he said. “We drew it up a couple days before in practice. We just tried it out. We’ll (pass) it to Q, then Keane (Thomann) will come screen, and I just roll and Q throws it up.”
Adams, 6-foot-5 sophomore from Carthage, threw down four second-half dunks to spice a 20-point performance as Missouri Southern downed Central Bible College 72-51 Tuesday night in the Lions’ home opener at the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
Adams scored eight of the Lions’ first 10 points and finished 9-of-11 from the field and 1-of-2 at the foul line. Another of his dunks came after Skyler Bowlin bypassed a breakaway layup to throw the ball off the backboard to the trailing Adams.
“That one was nice, too,” Adams said. “I liked that one. We kind of set that one up on the fly.”
The Lions dished out 25 assists, including eight by Bowlin, five by Adams and four by Crittendon.
“Thirty baskets and 25 assists, that tells you we shared the ball well,” Lions head coach Robert Corn said. “And we only had 11 turnovers. In a game like this, that’s not bad.”
Crittendon, 6-5 senior, tallied 14 points for the Lions (3-0), who shot 58 percent while building a 42-22 halftime lead and 49 percent for the game.
Guard Blake Hanson scored 15 points for CBC (3-4), followed by Chris Weber with 12 and Caleb Willis with 11.
The Lions jumped out to a 12-0 lead in the first 3 minutes, 12 seconds.
Thomann scored on a layin on the game’s first possession before Adams made the back end of a two-shot free throw, a layup after his steal, a 3-pointer after a steal by Crittendon and another layup after a Bowlin steal.
Crittendon’s layin after CBC’s fourth consecutive turnover made it 12-0 before the Spartans scored on Weber’s 3-pointer from the left corner.
“We got off to a good start in both halves,” Corn said, “then we got a little complacent. The thing I like about playing Central Bible is they are fundamentally sound, they will execute on offense and make you guard. When we let them run their sets and they got wide-open looks at the basket, they made shots.”
Rich Borries’ layup gave the Lions their biggest lead of the first half, 40-16 with 4:04 left. The Lions’ biggest lead was 59-26 on T.J. Williams’ two free throws with 11:53 to play.
The Spartans shot 35 percent from the floor and outrebounded the Lions 37-36, led by Cameron Tilus’ game-high eight rebounds.
“We were standing around and watching,” Corn said. “On the offensive end, several times the lane was wide open and all we needed was for somebody to crash and take advantage of the opportunity. That’s one of the things we will continue to work on.”
The Lions are home this weekend for the Freeman Sports Medicine/Chris Tucker memorial Classic. Friday’s session has Pittsburg State vs. Southwestern (Kan.) at 6 p.m. and Missouri Southern vs. Mid-America Christian at 8.
