OVC HOOPS: Colonels overcome slow start, pull away from Mid-Continent

Sports

Related Photos

EKU’s D’Mitri Riggs drives to the basket during the Colonels’ win Tuesday in Richmond. By Nancy Taggart

February 8, 2012

By Tim Mandell Register Sports Writer The Richmond Register Wed Feb 08, 2012, 12:57 AM EST

RICHMOND — It’s not often that a team misses its first 10 shots and still finds itself in the lead.

Or that a team shoots 25 percent in the first half and goes into the locker room up by eight points.

EKU did both Tuesday night.

Defense kept the Colonels in the game in the first half while waiting for the offense to catch up. It did in the second half, propelling EKU to a 59-41 victory against NAIA Mid-Continent.

From watching film of Mid-Continent and analyzing statistics, EKU coach Jeff Neubauer said he felt his team could drive to the basket and draw fouls.

It didn’t happen.

“They had fouled more than any team we’ve seen, so we really encouraged our guys to drive it and drive it, thinking we would be athletic enough and strong enough to get fouls, but that wasn’t the case,” Neubauer said.

Instead, EKU missed its first 10 shots, but held Mid-Continent to just one-of-six shooting through the first four minutes, as the Colonels opened a 5-2 lead.

EKU finally scored a basket — on a jumper by Jaron Jones with 15:22 remaining — but the Colonels, who opened the game two-of-17 from the field, held a slim 10-9 lead with 11:03 remaining.

Back-to-back three-pointers by D’Mitri Riggs finally gave the Colonels some breathing room.

“I hadn’t been hitting a lot lately, so I was hunting for a shot,” Riggs said. “We came out slow today, I don’t know what it was, we just came out slow. We didn’t know they were going to be so quick with their hands.”

Joshua Jones sank a pair of baskets and Jeff Allgood drained a three-pointer, as EKU went into halftime leading 23-15.

The Colonels limited Mid-Continent to 22 shot attempts in the first half. The Cougars made seven, shooting 31.8 percent through the first 20 minutes.

In the locker room the Colonels decided to change their gameplan.

“Our guys made great adjustments in the second half,” Neubauer said. “We said we need to keep driving the ball, but now it needs to be drive it and kick it. Our guys understood that we had to drive it inside, get the defense to flood to the ball and kick it out, and we got some good looks.”

EKU opened the second half on a 10-0 run to put the game out of reach.

Point guard Mike DiNunno drove to the basket for a score.

Riggs drew a pair of fouls, sinking three-of-four at the charity stripe.

Joshua Jones sank a jumper, then Eric Stutz drained a three-pointer, giving the Colonels a 33-15 lead.

A three-pointer by Jeff Johnson made the score 36-21.

Joshua Jones drained a three-pointer and Jaron Jones completed a three-point play, as EKU took a 44-27 lead.

From there, the Colonels cruised to the 18-point victory.

“I was in the right spot at the right time and just knocked down shots.” said Joshua Jones, who scored 11 of his game-high 15 points in the second half. “We were just driving more and kicking it out.”

EKU was 11-of-23 (47.8 percent) in the second half and made five-of-seven three-point attempts.

For the game, the Colonels made as many three-point field goals as two-point field goals, going nine-of-34 on two-pointers and nine-of-17 on three-pointers.

EKU also helped itself by making 14-of-17 free throws, getting 15 steals and forcing 20 turnovers.

Joshua Jones added four rebounds, four steals and three assists to his 15 points.

Stutz had 11 points and seven rebounds.

Riggs scored nine points, Jaron Jones had eight points, six rebounds and three assists, Jeff Allgood had six points, DiNunno had five points and three steals and Johnson scored five points.

EKU (14-12) hosts OVC rival Morehead State at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Text Only

Sports

H.S. SOFTBALL: Wilder throws one-hitter, Central blanks Southern 4-0
Mackenzie Wilder took a no-hitter into the seventh-inning and Madison Central picked up its fourth straight softball district championship, beating Madison Southern 4-0 Wednesday night at Gertrude Hood Field at Eastern Kentucky University.

May 23, 2012
H.S. BASEBALL: Indians roll to sixth straight title
The Indians delivered the knockout punch early against Model Laboratory Wednesday in the championship game of the 44th District Tournament at EKU’s Turkey Hughes.

May 23, 2012
GLENMORE: Pendergrass and East champs at MCC
Eighteen twosomes teed it up over the weekend at the Madison Country Club in the Men’s Annual Member/Guest Tournament and Skip East stepped into the winners circle with a thirty-six hole total of 122.

May 22, 2012
44th District SOFTBALL: Central, Southern to meet for district title
Madison Central and Madison Southern scored convincing wins Tuesday evening in the semifinals of the 44th District softball tournament and will meet tonight for the title at 5:30 p.m. at Gertrude Hood Field at Eastern Kentucky University.

May 22, 2012
44th DISTRICT BASEBALL: Central tops Berea
Cole Metcalfe certainly feels right at home on the mound at Turkey Hughes Field.

May 22, 2012
44th DISTRICT BASEBALL: Model rallies from 4-0 deficit to beat Southern in eight innings
The Patriots had plenty of chances to put runs on the board against Madison Southern starter Lucas Reynolds during Tuesday’s showdown at the 44th District Tournament.

May 22, 2012
‘She was determined’
Just prior to the start of her senior season, Madison Southern’s Jordan Renner was asked a rather serious question by her coach.

May 21, 2012
44th District baseball, softball postponed
The opening games of the 44th District softball and baseball tournament did not make it out of the second inning Monday evening before the teams were forced off the field.
Both games were later postponed because of rain and lightning.

May 21, 2012
BOWLING: Cracraft leads the way at Galaxy
The top scores bowled at Galaxy last week were a 269 game by Matt Cracraft in the Monday Mixed League and a 719 series by Randy Burgess Sr. in the non-sanctioned Wednesday Summer League.

May 20, 2012
H.S. SOFTBALL: District title up for grabs
Judging only by the results of the regular-season meetings between the four Madison County schools, it would be nearly impossible to predict the outcome of this week’s 44th District Softball Tournament.

May 20, 2012
More Sports Headlines

Sports

Search Results

Related Photos

OVC HOOPS: Colonels overcome slow start, pull away from Mid-Continent

A recent health ranking listed Madison County as the 20th healthiest county in the state. It measured factors such as exercise, access to health care and smoking. Do you smoke cigarettes?

Site Map