Men's Basketball | 2/10/2012 12:18:00 PM
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McPherson Kan. – Coming off two home victories, McPherson must now take their winning streak on the road as they travel up to face the Coyotes of Kansas Wesleyan University. The game is set to take place on Saturday, Feb. 11
th at 7 p.m. (CT) in Salina.
The game will be shown live on the KCAC Broadcast Network and at Macbulldogs.com. The contest will also be broadcasted live in the McPherson area on 96.7 FM KBBE MidKansas Radio and at Macbulldogs.com with Nick Gosnell and former Bulldog head coach Roger Trimmell on the call.
It seemed as if the Bulldogs could do no wrong in the first half against Friends on Thursday night, made apparent by a shot-clock buzzer-beater thrown up by
Adam Bruner (McPherson, Kan.) from NBA range. After grabbing a quick 9-2 lead in the first period, MC was able to expand that lead to 38-11 heading into the break. Post halftime, the fortunes changed and all that Friends put up seemed to go in; starting the half on an 8-0 run. The Falcons continued to hit their shots going on a 27-8 run late in the game to pull within four (50-54) at the 1:30 mark.
Samson Shivers (Houston, Texas) hit 4-of-4 free-throws to keep it just out of reach which allowed the Bulldogs to come out with the victory 58-50.
Where tough defense in the first half held the Falcons to a season-worst eight percent from the field brought about the 27 point lead, poor defensive play allowed Friends to come back and make it a game in the final two minutes of regulation. McPherson is no stranger to holding teams to a low field goal percentage. They are currently ranked second in the NAIA Division II in the category. Thanks to all of those misses by their opponents, they rank first in defensive rebounds and added 32 more against Friends.
The Bulldogs were highlighted by the 13 points from both
Chris Crawford (McPherson, Kan.) and
Aaron Frazier (McPherson, Kan.). Crawford added 7 rebounds to his 67 percentage from behind the three, hitting 2-of-3. Frazier contributed with six rebounds and a career high five blocks.
Jake Reinhardt (Walton, Kan.), who was recently added to the starting lineup, recorded eight rebounds, four of which were on the offensive end.
McPherson’s offensive show in the first half could be contributed to the 6-of-12 shooting from behind the arc. That kind of performance is seldom seen and just as quickly as it came, it went; MC went 0-of-5 from three in the second period. The Bulldogs ended the night shooting 35.3 percent from the three-point line.
Kansas Wesleyan is fresh off their first KCAC victory of the season, beating Southwestern 78-67 Thursday night. The win is just the third of the season for KWU and puts them at 3-23 overall and 1-14 in the conference.
After the matchup against the Coyotes, McPherson will head to their final road game of the 2011-2012 regular season. MC will travel to Ottawa and face the Braves of Ottawa University on Thursday, Feb. 16
th with tipoff scheduled for 8 p.m. (CT)
Scouting Kansas Wesleyan
Kansas Wesleyan is sitting firmly at 10
th place in the KCAC but is no longer sitting there with zero conference wins. After their 88.2 points per game averaging defense held Southwestern to 67 points Thursday, KWU grabs their first KCAC triumph. The defense did give up 22 offensive rebounds to SC but forced 21 turnovers on 13 steals to help in the winning effort.
The Coyotes offensive field goal percentage was the real story of the game. They shot an amazing 45.1 percent for the contest, hitting on 23-of-51. KWU also made the most of their 32 trips to the free-throw line, making 26 of them for an 81.3 percentage.
Kansas Wesleyan was led by forward Jason Carter who had 17 points from the bench. Another bench player, Michael Johnson, had 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Seth Smith added 12 points to the team’s total to round out the double-digit scorers. The bench of KWU outscored the five starters 43-35, something that you don’t often see.
The scoring leader for the Coyotes this year is guard Dylan Briscoe who averages 10.1 points per game; he also has the team’s best steal per game average at 1.2. Ty Dean is KWU’s top rebounder and shot blocker, averaging 4.9 boards and 0.4 swats per game.
As a team, Kansas Wesleyan is towards the bottom of the pack in most statistical categories in the conference. They do rank fourth in steals per game at 6.92 and make 67.7 percent of their free-throws which is sixth in the KCAC.
Once McPherson leaves Salina, KWU will be off until the 16
th of Feb. when they will travel to play Friends University in Wichita. That matchup is to be played at 8 p.m. (CT)
