Spartan men 5-1 at break
TRENTON, Mo. — Southwestern is off to its best start in Jerry Drymon’s fourth year as head men’s basketball coach.
The Spartans enter the Thanksgiving break at 5-1 after a weekend split in the North Central Missouri Classic.
Against Division I Marshalltown Community College on Friday, the Spartans squandered an eight-point lead in the first half in losing 89-86.
The situation was turned around on Saturday, as host North Central held a 39-31 halftime lead before the Spartans stormed back to win 76-65.
“We played some good basketball, especially defensively in that second half Saturday against North Central,” Drymon said. “We came out and allowed only 26 points in the second half and won the game going away.”
Southwestern went up 12-0 early on North Central, but then hit a lull as the Pirates went in front by eight at halftime.
“We got some easy baskets out of our fullcourt defense,” Drymon said.
Point guard Terrance Morgan had a season-high 18 points to go along with the 20-point effort of sophomore post player Anthony Davis. Sophomore Laurice Ellison had 10 points and 14 rebounds. Freshman Tyler Raasch was one of four players in double figures with 11, including a pair of 3-pointers.
The first game on Friday had a wild finish.
Southwestern led 41-33 in the first half before the Tigers seized some momentum with a 6-0 run at the end of the half.
Southwester had a five-point lead for awhile in the second half, but Marshalltown came back and held a comfortable 10-point bulge with only 30 seconds remaining.
At :03, Kristian Williams stole the ball for Southestern and made two free throws to cut it to five points.
Marshalltown then threw the ball away and Southwestern scored to cut it to three points with 1.3 seconds left.
The Tigers turned it over by stepping over the inbounds line and Southwestern had one more chance with no timeouts left. Raasch’s fadeaway 3-point try bounced off, leaving only a 3-point margin at the finish.
“We shot 51 percent from the foor, outrebounded them and made more free throws,” Drymon said. “We lost the game because they shot 47 percent for the game on 3-pointers.”
The Tigers made 14 treys in the game.
Davis, despite sitting out seven minutes in the second half with four fouls, finished with 25 points. Ellison contributed 20.
The Spartans are idle until meeting nationally-ranked Iowa Western Nov. 30 at Council Bluffs.
MARSHALLTOWN CC (89) — Navarre 9 2-2 26, Webb 5 3-2 16, White 4 7-11 15, Beard 3 0-0 9, Valera 3 2-2 8, Hawkins 2 0-0 5, Lucious 2 0-0 5, Kurtz 0 3-6 3, Nance 1 0-0 2. Totals — 29 17-25 89. 3-point goals — 14 (Navarre 6, Webb 3, Beard 3, Hawkins 1, Lucious 1). Team fouls — 29.
SOUTHWESTERN (86) — Anthony Davis 10 5-7 25, Laurice Ellison 9 2-4 20, Kristian Williams 3 4-4 10, Terrance Morgan 1 7-9 9, Tyler Raasch 3 1-2 9, Royce Phillips 3 3-7 9, Chris Santiago 1 2-2 4. Totals — 30 24-35 86. 3-point goals — 2 (Raasch 2). Team fouls — 15.
Marsh. — 39 89
SWCC — 41 86
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N. CENTRAL (Mo.) (65) — Bandy 5 5-5 19, Sese 6 3-3 17, Thomas 5 0-0 11, Neeley 3 0-0 6, Roper 3 0-2 6, Eighmey 2 0-0 4, Calfee 1 0-0 2. Totals — 25 8-10 65. 3-point goals — 7 (Bandy 4, Sese 2, Thomas 1). Team fouls — 16.
SOUTHWESTERN (76) — Anthony Davis 9 2-4 20, Terrance Morgan 7 3-5 18, Tyler Raasch 3 3-4 11, Laurice Ellison 4 2-2 10, Jamahl Depriest 3 0-0 7, Kristian Williams 1 4-4 6, Royce Phillips 2 0-0 4. Totals — 29 14-19 76. 3-point goals — 4 (Raasch 2, Morgan 1, Depriest 1). Team fouls — 14. Fouled out — None.
N. Central — 39 65
SWCC — 31 76
