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JOPLIN, Mo. —
There’s a fine line between winning and losing basketball games and the Pittsburg State men fell on the losing side of the fine line Wednesday night against Missouri Southern, 96-92 in an epic Sonic Trophy Series grudge match lasting two overtimes at the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
“Give our kids credit,” Pitt State head coach Kevin Muff told Eddie Lomshek of KKOW after the game. “I thought the second half, there’s a couple times in there, especially early, we could have let the game get away from us and we did a good job of sticking with it and grinding it out on the defensive end. We made a little bit of adjustment. We started going to (Southern center Keane) Thomann and playing behind him instead of trying to front him.
“Offensively, I felt like we played with a lot of heart and a lot of toughness. Nothing came easy for us. There was a lot of hustle plays and hustle baskets and we shot our free throws well down the stretch.”
Senior forward Andra Bailey gave Pitt State a 86-84 lead at the start of the second extra period, but Missouri Southern went on a 9-0 run with two points on a Matt Everson back cut layup and seven points by Marquis Addison on his way to a game-high 33 points proving fatal to the Pitt State cause.
It was a back-and-forth contest most of the way — Southern enjoyed the biggest lead of the game of seven points at the 14:23 mark of the first half.
Late in the first half, Southern point guard Christian Salecich went in for a layup and two Gorillas met him at the rim, forcing a Salecich miss. However, Southern forward Jordan Talbert cleaned up the mess and dunked home a follow shot, leaving Pitt State with a 40-37 halftime deficit.
Pitt State began the second half on a positive note, as Courtney Ingram drove and drew a third personal foul against Southern wing Jason Adams. Ingram, unfortunately for the Gorillas, split his free throws and Southern led 40-38. Adams cost himself an extra personal foul in the first half when he argued a no-call on an airballed 3-point shot Adams thought he was fouled on and the refs whistled him for a technical foul.
After Southern’s sixth turnover of the second half, freshman point guard Sam Pugh took a JaVon McGee pass and made it a 48-47 contest on a 3-point shot with 14:16 remaining. However, Southern answered with a pair of free throws by sophomore Addison; Adams then missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and Bailey made it 50-49 with a layup on the subsequent Pitt State possession.
There’s a fine line between winning and losing basketball games and the Pittsburg State men fell on the losing side of the fine line Wednesday night against Missouri Southern, 96-92 in an epic Sonic Trophy Series grudge match lasting two overtimes at the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
“Give our kids credit,” Pitt State head coach Kevin Muff told Eddie Lomshek of KKOW after the game. “I thought the second half, there’s a couple times in there, especially early, we could have let the game get away from us and we did a good job of sticking with it and grinding it out on the defensive end. We made a little bit of adjustment. We started going to (Southern center Keane) Thomann and playing behind him instead of trying to front him.
“Offensively, I felt like we played with a lot of heart and a lot of toughness. Nothing came easy for us. There was a lot of hustle plays and hustle baskets and we shot our free throws well down the stretch.”
Senior forward Andra Bailey gave Pitt State a 86-84 lead at the start of the second extra period, but Missouri Southern went on a 9-0 run with two points on a Matt Everson back cut layup and seven points by Marquis Addison on his way to a game-high 33 points proving fatal to the Pitt State cause.
It was a back-and-forth contest most of the way — Southern enjoyed the biggest lead of the game of seven points at the 14:23 mark of the first half.
Late in the first half, Southern point guard Christian Salecich went in for a layup and two Gorillas met him at the rim, forcing a Salecich miss. However, Southern forward Jordan Talbert cleaned up the mess and dunked home a follow shot, leaving Pitt State with a 40-37 halftime deficit.
Pitt State began the second half on a positive note, as Courtney Ingram drove and drew a third personal foul against Southern wing Jason Adams. Ingram, unfortunately for the Gorillas, split his free throws and Southern led 40-38. Adams cost himself an extra personal foul in the first half when he argued a no-call on an airballed 3-point shot Adams thought he was fouled on and the refs whistled him for a technical foul.
After Southern’s sixth turnover of the second half, freshman point guard Sam Pugh took a JaVon McGee pass and made it a 48-47 contest on a 3-point shot with 14:16 remaining. However, Southern answered with a pair of free throws by sophomore Addison; Adams then missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and Bailey made it 50-49 with a layup on the subsequent Pitt State possession.
Southern went ahead 56-51 on points No. 21 and 22 by senior post Keane Thomann, despite the fourth personal foul being called on Adams during the middle of a 6-2 Southern mini-run. Salecich tacked on a free throw before Pitt State scored again on another Bailey layup.
Down 61-57 with 8:41 remaining at the start of an important possession, Pitt State senior point guard Eric Ray got Matt Everson in the air, drew a foul and made a pair of free throws at the 8:19 mark. However, on the other end, Thomann scored another two points on an inside basket as the Lions continued to answer every Gorilla challenge with a big play.
McGee and Ray gave Pitt State back-to-back baskets and the Missouri Southern lead was 65-63 before Talbert again made Pitt State pay on the glass with a putback.
Down 67-63, McGee blanked on a 1-and-1 and then on the other end, Addison made both his free throws, Southern ahead 69-63.
Pitt State quickly had it back to 69-68 on big plays from two seniors — a Ray layup off a Southern turnover and a Bailey 3-pointer after a rare Thomann miss, forcing Southern head coach Robert Corn to call a timeout.
Thomann and Ray traded baskets on the possessions immediately after Southern’s timeout; Talbert and McGee exchanged split free throws. Trailing 72-71, Ray forced a held ball (Pitt State possession) and Thomann and Talbert denied Pitt State the lead by challenging Bailey on a putback attempt.
Pitt State persevered and went ahead 75-74 with 1:03 remaining, as Marky Nolen followed up a McGee miss with a tip-in layup on another transition opportunity for the Gorillas. However, of course, Pitt State’s lead did not last very long as Addison put Southern back ahead 77-75 on a clutch 3.
Adams committed a costly mistake when he went for a steal and fouled Drake Green with 27 seconds remaining. Green, shooting a 1-and-1, calmly made both free throws for a tie score and Adams fouled out.
Southern lost the ball out-of-bounds with 3.9 seconds remaining and Ray missed a bank-shot 3-pointer at the regulation buzzer.
In overtime, with the score knotted at 84, Ray committed a turnover with 1.2 seconds remaining.
Ray led Pitt State with 22 points, but had one assist compared to six turnovers. Bailey had a double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds, plus four steals. McGee added 18 points and nine rebounds. Nolen scored 17 points and grabbed five rebounds, all offensive boards.
“He really wanted it,” Muff said of Nolen. “You could see it in him and you could see it in his body language and how tough he was and his physicality down the stretch. I thought he did a great job.”
In addition to his 33 points, Addison added five rebounds, four steals and three assists. Thomann and Talbert both had double-doubles — Thomann 27 points and 10 rebounds and Talbert 10 points and 12 rebounds. Patrick Hester added 10 points.
On a four-game losing streak, Pitt State (12-11, 8-8 MIAA) hosts Lincoln on Saturday, desperate for a win at this late junction in the season.
“It starts this Saturday and Lincoln’s playing pretty well right now,” Muff said. “They haven’t won many games, but actually watching them on film, they’re pretty good. It’s a team we definitely can’t overlook, but we need to protect our home floor. We need to find a way to win that one and then maybe if we can get that one, then look to Wednesday and get one there. . . . That win might be the confidence we need to get us going.”
No. 19 LIONS 96, GORILLAS 92 (2OT)
PITTSBURG STATE (92) — Eric Ray 7-13 6-6 22, Andra Bailey 8-13 2-2 19, JaVon McGee 8-17 2-5 18, Marky Nolen 7-18 3-4 17, Drake Green 1-4 3-4 5, Rico Pierrevilus 2-6 0-0 4, Courtney Ingram 1-6 1-2 4, Sam Pugh 1-3 0-0 3, Ian Ponds 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 35-80 17-23 92.
MISSOURI SOUTHERN (96) — Marquis Addison 11-16 10-11 33, Keane Thomann 13-22 1-2 27, Patrick Hester 4-7 1-2 10, Jordan Talbert 4-8 2-4 10, Jason Adams 2-8 2-3 8, Christian Salecich 1-5 1-4 3, Matt Everson 1-2 0-0 2, T.J. Williams 0-1 2-2 2, Mike Thompson 0-1 1-2 1, Stephen Atkinson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 36-70 20-30 96.
Halftime — MSSU 40, PSU 37. 3-point goals — PSU 5-19 (Ray 2-5, Bailey 1-2, Ingram 1-3, Pugh 1-3, Green 0-3, Pierrevilus 0-2, Nolen 0-1), MSSU 4-13 (Adams 2-4, Addison 1-2, Hester 1-2, Salecich 0-3, Everson 0-1, Thompson 0-1). Rebounds — PSU 41 (Bailey 12), MSSU 46 (Talbert 12). Assists — PSU 9 (Green, Pugh 2), MSSU 23 (Adams, Talbert 5). Turnovers — PSU 17, MSSU 20. Steals — PSU 9 (Bailey 4), MSSU 12 (Addison 4). Blocked shots — PSU 2, MSSU 4. Personal fouls — PSU 26, MSSU 17. Fouled out — Green, PSU; Adams, MSSU. Technical foul — Adams, MSSU. Attendance — 2,516.
