Men's Basketball | 11/14/2012 12:20:00 AM
Box Score
McPherson, Kan. – No. 18 McPherson College faced a very talented RV Central Christian basketball program on Tuesday. Both teams were fighting for McPherson bragging rights and in the end, the west-side Tigers came out victorious 86-81. After starting the year 3-0, MC is now 3-2 for the season.
CCC came out hot on their home court, hitting their first 7-of-9 shots and taking the early lead. The Bulldogs hung in there and kept the game within reach, finally taking their first lead with just under five minutes to go in the half. McPherson would go into the locker room up by four points at 34-30.
Central’s hot shooting eventually cooled down, but not much as they shot the ball 46.2 percent from the floor and were 5-of-11 from distance. MC held their own with a 46.9 shooting percentage, relying on inside play by their big men who scored 18 in the half.
In the second period, the Tigers came out on fire again and regained the lead two minutes into the half and were able to extend it to 10 points a few minutes later. McPherson would keep the deficit under 10 for the majority of the period, never letting the game get too out of hand. This would be difficult, however, as CCC led by 14 points with only 1:45 left in regulation. The Bulldogs, remembering what they overcame in the quarterfinals of the National Championships a year ago, didn’t give up and kept fighting. MC would get within five points but it was too little, too late as the clock hit zero with the score 86-81 in favor of Central.
The Tigers shot near lights out in the second half, making 16-of-27 of their field goals and an amazing 61.5% (8-of-13) from deep; the squad did struggle from the free throw line, only hitting 17-of-31. McPherson also shot well from the field in the second half, knocking in 18-of-44 but going 3-of-14 from three-point range hurt MC as they were trying to claw back into the game; the Bulldogs hit 72.7% of their shots from the charity stripe. Mac out-rebounded CCC 44-32 and had 17 offensive boards. Only 11 turnovers were made by McPherson, tying their season-low.
Darius Hill (Kansas City, Kan.) racked up the rebounds for MC, snagging 12; match that with his season-high 21 points (10-of-15 from the field and 1-of-2 from the stripe) gave Hill his second double-double this season.
Samson Shivers (Houston, Texas) came on late, scoring 16 points on 5-of-16 shooting.
Mason Hewitt (Norwich, Kan.) also made it into double figures for the first time this year with 12.
Three Tigers also made it into double-digits in scoring. Leading the way was Kaelon Gary who had 20 on 7-of-14 from the field and 5-of-9 from the three-point arc. Two-time All-American Chris Jones put in 15 points and 11 rebounds on 6-of-9 shooting but was just 3-of-11 from the charity stripe. Aaron Cannon rounds out the 10+ scorers with his 13.
MC next travels to Baldwin City, Kansas for the Baker University Classic; games will be on November 16
th and 17
th. The Bulldogs will first take on Haskell Indian Nations University on Friday at 5:30 p.m. (CT) and then the host school, BU Wildcats, on Saturday at 3:00 p.m.
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