It was the size of the Pittsburg State men’s basketball team that told the tale on Tuesday night as the Gorillas opened the 2009-10 season with a 72-49 win over Sterling College at John Lance Arena.
Pitt State manhandled the undersized Warriors and it showed as the Gorillas outrebounded Sterling 46-28 in the game.
“We had the advantage, but most of the time our size had to come from 20 feet out,” said PSU head coach Gene Iba.
The Gorillas (1-0) used a 17-0 run that opened up the first half to hold off a Sterling team that made adjustments in the second half and started to slow the pace of their offense, forcing the Gorillas to bring their defense from the outside — where they were guarding the perimeter shooting of the Warriors — to the inside.
But, in the end, Pitt State’s athletic presence was too much for the Warriors to handle.
“We played them tonight knowing that we have mismatches,” said Sterling head coach Dean Jaderston. “We had to play to a faster tempo to try to make up for that.”
The early Pitt State run came between a pair of 3-pointers from Andy Smith and Spencer Magana.
Magana wound up going 3 of 7 from 3-point range and ended with a team-high of 14 points.
Post Rodney Grace contributed down in the paint with 14 points of his own.
The Gorillas played 12 players that attempted baskets on the night.
“We’re trying to find eight or nine guys that can play a lot,” Iba said. “We had a lot of different combinations and some of them are still getting their feet wet.”
Most of the time that did not seem to matter as, defensively, the Gorillas forced 13 turnovers — 10 in the first half.
Those 10 first-half turnovers translated into 14 points for the Gorillas.
However, with a change in tempo in the second half, Pitt State had to adjust their defensive style, which resulted in just three turnovers in the second half.
“I thought we played well defensively in the first half,” Iba said. “They changed up their offense in the second half and it forced us to play more defense.”
Between the rebounding battle and the turnovers, Sterling was not able to close the gap on the Gorillas to more than just 17 points.
“We just got clobbered on the boards and we just couldn’t box them out all night,” Jaderston said. “Pitt State did what they needed to do to win.”
The Gorillas return to action at 7 p.m. Friday night against Haskell Indian Nations in the first game of the Chatters/Comfort Inn Classic at John Lance Arena.
Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140. Follow Morning Sun sports at twitter.com/mssports
