KANSAS CITY — UMKC rallied from eight down in the second half to knock of the Fighting Sioux men's basketball team, 69-61, on Saturday at the Swinney Recreation Center. Freshman Trinity Hall scored a career-high 16 points to lead five Kangaroos in double figures as UMKC (5-6) defeated UND (4-7) for the second straight year in non-conference action.
UMKC came into the contest shooting just 32 percent as a team from 3-point range, but Hall and company buried 10-of-17 (58.8 percent) attempts from deep to help secure the win.
Junior
Patrick Mitchell (Des Moines, Iowa) and freshman
Troy Huff (Milwaukee, Wis.) each scored 14 points for the Sioux, but the duo combined for 19 of those points in the first half when UND played its best 20 minutes of basketball.
“It came down to two things,” UND head coach
Brian Jones said. “I thought we fought hard and played extremely well in stretches, but we did not rebound in the second half and shot poorly from the free throw line throughout the game. We came in shooting around 78 percent from the line and if we make fouls shots the way were are capable of, then it's a different game.”
Mitchell and Huff had the Sioux ahead 33-31 at the break as both players reeled off nice scoring stretches in the early going. UMKC jumped out to an 8-2 lead before Mitchell got the offense clicking for the Sioux. The Des Moines native scored the next nine points for UND to give the Sioux an 11-10 advantage.
Huff and classmate
Jamal Webb (Buffalo, N.Y.) would make sure that lead held for the remainder of the half as those two combined for the next 14 points, putting the Sioux ahead, 25-19.
The Sioux stretched their lead out to eight after a layup by senior
Derek Benter (Crosby, N.D.) at the 7:52 mark, but they managed just five points the rest of the half to allow the Roos to close their deficit to just two points at the break.
The free throw struggles for the Sioux started early and never went away. UND converted on just 4-of-10 from the charity strip in the opening 20 minutes and those woes continued into the second half. UND finished just 8-for-17 (47 percent), but it was extra possessions for UMKC that doomed the Sioux down the stretch.
The Roos corralled 11 offensive rebounds in the second half, turning those into 10 second-chance points as they outrebounded the Sioux 23-12 after the break.
Hall briefly gave UMKC a 36-35 lead with his second trey of the game just two minutes into the second half, but redshirt freshman
Josh Schuler (Urbana, Ohio) sparked a 9-0 run by the Sioux that put the visitors back ahead by eight. Schuler scored seven of his nine points after the break and also added a career-high five assists. Webb also finished with nine points and five assists.
“I thought we did a nice job of executing right out of the break,” Jones added. “We did not have that lull today that we have had in the past and that was something we can build on. We just have to keep that consistency through the entire half.”
UMKC managed to claw all the way back again, this time answering with an 11-3 run as Hall tied the score at 47-47.
Reserve guard Michael Gholston, who finished with a career-high 11 points along with center Bernard Kamwa, gave the Roos the lead back with a jumper at the 10:21 mark and the home team would never trail again.
The Sioux shot 52 percent from the floor in the opening half, making nine straight shots at one point, but they cooled off in the second half, connecting on just 11-of-29 from the field. Junior
Chris Clausen (Adelaide, Austraila) saw his most extensive action since mid-November as he contributed with four points and a team-high seven rebounds in 15 minutes of action.
The Sioux return to action at Green Bay on Monday at 7 p.m.
– Go Sioux –
