Pittsburg State head men’s basketball coach Gene Iba is closing in on 250 wins as the Gorillas head man.
But, that is the farthest from Iba’s mind right now as the Gorillas get ready to square off with Emporia State at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at John Lance Arena.
“I didn’t even know that,” Iba said. “I have a relative that I will never catch anyway.”
He refers to longtime Oklahoma State head basketball coach Henry Iba, who has over 800 wins that spanned from 1936 to 1970.
Gene Iba enters Saturday's home game against the Hornets with a mark of 249-144 (.634) at Pitt State.
But, for Gene Iba, the task at hand is not 250 wins but just one — Saturday night.
“There is a lot of the league left but we have to get started first,” Gene Iba said. “We have been a little unfortunate in that we have played a lot of the top teams in the league.
“We are 2-4 ad we have to do something about that pretty quick.”
A pair of second-half runs by the Emporia State spurred them to a 71-66 upset victory over No. 12 Missouri Southern Wednesday night at White Auditorium.
Junior guard Lamar Wilbern scored 13 of his team-high 17 points in the second half, as the Hornets (11-3, 5-2 MIAA) joined Washburn in a tie for second place in the MIAA standings, a half-game behind Southwest Baptist.
Emporia State shot 14 of 24 (58.3 percent) from the field in the second half to spark the comeback. The Lions (14-2, 4-2 MIAA) held a seven-point lead at one point in the final 20 minutes and were up by a 42-36 count when the Hornets made their first charge.
The Hornets bring a tough outside shooting game to John Lance Arena as they sport four players that have shot at or above 40 percent from three point range this season.
“They are big inside,” Gene Iba said. “When you have a team that shoots that well, you have to be aware of it and focus on that.”
The Gorillas will counter with an inside game that features Rodney Grace — who scored a season-high 23 points against Missouri Southern last week — and TJ Stukes — who picked up 12 rebounds against the Lions.
“Hopefully, our inside game matches up well,” Gene Iba said. “We are better there than we were a month ago and, hopefully, that will pay dividends.”
Wilbern matched his career high with 22 points in the win over UNO — including six straight points in the second half to get ESU within one of the lead — and added 10 rebounds while sophomore forward Adam Holthaus scored a career-high 14 and junior guard Tim Niles had a season-best 16 points against the Mavs.
The Gorillas have been sparked by senior guard Carlos Taylor who has averaged a league-best 21.2 points in MIAA games after logging 20 at MSSU. Junior guard Spencer Magana has not missed in 15 tries from the charity stripe during MIAA play.
Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140
PITTSBURG —
