Gorillas blast Haskell, 96-54

Height and power will win out just about every time in basketball.
The Pittsburg State men’s basketball team had a lot of both as they crushed Haskell Indian Nations, 96-54 in the first round of the Chatters/Comfort Inn Classic Friday at John Lance Arena.
The Gorillas opened up the game on a 19-0 run on a pair of 3-pointers from Spencer Magana as Haskell went 0 of 7 from the field and had three turnovers before the first media time out at the 14 minute, 42 second mark of the first half.
Magana had eight at the first break for the Gorillas and C.J. Masters had five. The Gorillas also recorded nine rebounds in the first five minutes of the game.
“It’s awfully hard the way we started out,” said Haskell head coach Ted Juneau. “We look up and we are down big and things started to get tight.”
Pitt State extended their lead to 23-0 before Terrance Little-Thunder hit the Indians’ first bucket of the game with 12:54 left in the first half.
The Gorillas pushed their lead to 30 on a pair of free-throws from James Robinson midway through the first half.
Haskell only shot 24 percent from the field on 6 of 25 shooting while committing seven turnovers in the first 15 minutes of the game.
The Gorillas had 10 players in the scoring column by that time, led by Magana and Rodney Grace’s eight points.
“We needed this game tonight,” said PSU head coach Gene Iba. “For the most part, I thought we played well.”
Grace hit his 10th point of the game to pull the Gorillas out in front by 31, 46-15 with just over three minutes left in the first half.
Just over a minute later, Grace was fouled by DJ Fish after putting up a one-handed put-back. Grace connected on the 3-point play, putting the Gorillas up 49-17.
The Gorillas gave up just seven points over the last six minutes of the first half, en route to a 51-22 lead at halftime.
Pitt State shot a robust 51.2 percent from the field, going 21 of 41 while Haskell was just 8 of 31 for 25.8 percent. The Gorillas also won the rebounding battle, 29-17 in the first half.
“You have to be fundamentally sound because there are just better teams out there and Pitt State is certainly one of them,” Juneau said.
In the second half, the Gorillas continued to open up the offense as Magana drained a pair of 3s and Andy Smith got into the action.
The Gorillas pushed their lead to 66-26 after a pair of layups from Grace and C.J. Masters.
Pitt State’s defense held the Indians scoreless for a period of four minutes before Sam Edwards connected on a layup at the 13:40 mark.
Grace led the Gorillas with 15 points while Magana added 14 in the win.
Pitt State will take on Missouri S&T at 7 p.m. tonight in the final game of the tournament.