The Griffon News

With only five games left in the season and their backs against the wall, the Griffon men faced a must win situation in order to keep their post season hopes alive.

The Missouri Western men stepped up to the challenge and snapped a five game losing streak beating the Pittsburgh State Gorillas 73-64 Wednesday night. The sweet taste of victory returned to the Griffs again thanks to a new team attitude. It couldn’t have come at a better time either. With their tournament hopes slipping through their fingers after losing eight of the last nine games, Missouri  Western looked like a new team out there on the floor.

“It’s a difference in attitude,” senior guard Kenny “Pooh” Oliver said. “It’s more of us wanting to, instead of us having to. In practice, now it’s like we want to run these 11 lines, instead of ‘oh shoot, we have to run 11 lines.’”

The revival of the Griffs Wednesday night could be credited to many different areas of play, but it didn’t hurt to have Jay McFarland on our side either. The 6-foot-8-inch junior led the way, shooting perfect from the field and leading all scorers with 20 points.

“It was a coming together for us,” said McFarland.

The victory can also be attributed to the three-point shootinggame. Missouri Western shot a lights out 40 percent from beyond the arc, whereas Pitt. State made only one of their 13 attempts, standing at 7.7 percent. Oliver knocked down some crucial threes in the game, making it harder and harder for the Gorillas to come back. This was important to Pooh because he had been in somewhat of a shooting slump prior to the game.

“It’s about time I hit something,” Oliver said. “It felt like I couldn’t throw a rock in a river. Coach just told me to keep shooting.” The shooting paid off for Pooh and the Griffons, proving to be the biggest difference in the game.

Pittsburgh State seems to be the cure for the MWSU men’s illnesses. Coach Tom Smith and the Griffons seem to always have the answer for a very tough Pitt. State team.

“For some reason, they’ve had trouble with us; nobody else really has. But they have had trouble matching up with us,” said Smith. The last game Missouri Western won was against the Gorillas in an overtime thriller. This time around, it was more of a Griffon show though.

“It was more of a convincing win than last time,” McFarland said.

A lot of the campus’s attention has turned towards a very successful women’s team, and sometimes people forget about the men. It was great to see the guys playing at the top of their game again.

“We haven’t won in front of our home crowd in awhile, so it was a win for them, it was a win for us, it was a big win for our confidence basically,” Oliver said. “Just to finally get over this hump now, and hopefully we can run off two, three, four wins in a row.”

In order for the Griffon men to make the tournament, they will have to do just that. Win. The Missouri Western men Wednesday night looked like a new team. It may seem like it’s a little late to make a turnaround, but it’s better late than never. This team has a lot of heart, and one thing is for sure: they will go down fighting.