Men's Basketball | 2/28/2012 1:12:00 AM
Box Score
Box Score
Park City, Kan. – The basketball playing Bulldogs are not only KCAC regular season champions but are tournament champions as well after defeating The University of Saint Mary, 86-79 on Feb. 27th. The McPherson men, led by an inspired performance by Aaron Frazier, had to give it their all in order to beat the hot shooting Spires on “Championship Monday” in Hartman Arena.
In the opening period, neither team was able to pull away from the other until the seven-minute mark when USM strung together eight points to pull ahead by double figures for the first time in the game. After being down 12, McPherson battled back, hitting 8-of-8 from the free-throw line to cut their deficit in half at intermission, going into the locker room with a score of 39-45. After some smart halftime adjustments, the Bulldogs were able to take the lead with 14:20 remaining off a Frazier three pointer (55-53). The game went back and forth (nine lead changes) the rest of the way until the very end when McPherson came out with the victory.
Frazier had a career night, scoring 31 points on 10-of-20 shooting from the field, missing only twice in the second half. He took control of the game midway through the second period, going into “beast mode” and proving why he deserved the “Player-of-the-Year” title. Frazier also accumulated three blocks, four steals and 13 rebounds for his second double-double of the year. He was joined in double-figure scoring by Samson Shivers (21 including 7-of-8 from the free-throw line), Chris Crawford (16) and, in his first game back, Jordan Crawford (12). Shivers was MC’s leading scorer at the break with 12 and did it while only shooting, and making, only one three-point shot.
It was a foul heavy contest with both teams committing 28 fouls in the game, 14 each half. McPherson got into early trouble with their fouls and had to use some unique player combinations in the first period. All of those fouls led to a lot of free throws; MC shot 44 in the game and made 32 for a 72.7 percentage. The Bulldogs had a great second half shooting, hitting 50% (14-28) from the field including 4-of-10 from long range. The Bulldog defense forced 18 turnovers and made the most of them with 20 points coming from those opportunities.
USM had four players score in double figures as well, Brandon Dougherty (23), Jordan Wilcox (16), Jeb Greenberg (14) and Chip Schneider (10). Dougherty and Greenberg did most of their damage from the charity stripe going 10-of-12 and 12-of-12, respectively. No Spire was able to pull down double-digit rebounds despite grabbing 47 boards as a team, out rebounding MC by 11.
It was a tale of two halves when it came to shooting for Saint Mary. In the opening period, they were able to make over 40% of both their three-pointers and total field goals. However, in the second, with the Bulldogs cranking up the defensive pressure, they couldn’t buy a bucket, hitting only 8-of-33 from the field and 3-of-15 from behind the arc. In both periods, USM made over 80 percent of their free-throws, hitting a total of 29 out of 34.
Both teams now await the creation of the NAIA Division II National Tournament bracket, which is set to be released on Wednesday, Feb. 29th, finding out their final seed and placement in the tournament.
