Men's Basketball | 11/17/2013 8:36:00 AM
Box Score
McPherson, Kan. – The chances were there for MC basketball but the Bulldogs couldn't convert, giving them just their second loss of the season 88-66 to Bacone College. Mac is now 4-2 on the year.
"We had a lot of wide open shots and didn't make them tonight and our free throws were terrible." said Coach Swartzendruber. "We have to put this game behind us and be ready to go next week."
It took eight shot attempts for the first bucket to be counted by either team on Saturday. BC got ahead 2-0 and did not relinquish their lead for the remainder of the night. The 'Dogs kept things under 10 for the majority of the period but were never able to string together scores and stops to overtake the Warriors. Bacone scored seven of the last eight first half points and took a 40-28 lead into the locker room.
MC didn't shoot the ball terribly from the field in the opening minutes as they went 12-of-34, it was their inability to make the freebies, 2-of-14 free throws, and the ones from deep, 2-of-12. Bacone made just one more field goal in the half, 13-of-26, but were able to convert their shots from the stripe, going 14-of-17; they too had difficulties from long range, making 1-of-7.
It appeared that confidence was lost for the Mac men in the second half as they continued to struggle making shots. Their deficit moved to 20 points just over five minutes into the period but mostly stayed in the upper teens. The Warriors kept the 20-point advantage for the last few minutes, securing their 88-66 victory.
The shooting only got worse for McPherson in the game's final 20 minutes. The 'Dogs bucketed just 10-of-33 field goals with 2-of-13 coming from range; they did improve their free throw percentage but only to 57.14 percent, making 16-of-28. It's hard to beat a team when they're hitting shots and that's just what Bacone did, converting on 60% of their 30 attempts with 5-of-11 going in from beyond the arc; a 6-of-9 showing from the charity stripe was tallied by BC.
The Bulldogs ended the night making 22-of-67 from the floor including an unfortunate 4-of-25 (16%) from deep; less than half of their free throws went through the rim as they totaled 18-of-42. Mac did keep their turnovers under 10, logging eight; they only had four assists however. The 'Dogs pulled in two more rebounds than the Warriors, totaling 42 with 20 offensive boards.
Devirous Johnson (Brooklyn, N.Y.) seemed to be the only MC playing seeing his shots fall as he scored a season-high 22 points, making 9-of-14 field goals and 4-of-6 free throws; he also boarded a team leading 16 rebounds with eight coming off the offensive glass.
Erik DeRoo (Tyler, Texas) was the next closest Bulldog to hit double figures as he was 2-of-8 from downtown and 2-of-2 from the stripe.
The 'Dogs are hoping to have short memories as they have a big game scheduled for November 19
th; the battle for the city of McPherson is on the line on Tuesday as Central Christian makes their way across town to face MC for a showdown at 8:00 p.m. (CT) in the Sport Center.
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