Men lose to UNO, fight to stay in running for tournament

By Matt Gleaves

February 19, 2010 No Comments

The Griffons hadn’t lost a home conference game, but the University of Nebraska-Omaha made sure that Western wouldn’t finish the season that way as they took down the Griffons 90-74.

Western took an early 6-0 lead in the game, but the Maverick’s Jeff Martin helped erase the lead as he hit three 3 point shots to score nine of the Mav’s first 12 points.

“We took that early punch from them and didn’t really get back to playing Griffon basketball after that,” said senior guard Marcus Rhodes.

The lead quickly swelled to double digits and Western was not able to get it back under 10 the rest of the game. More bad news hit when senior guard Martin Nolan was walked off the court after running into a hard screen set in the back court. Nolan hit his head on the screen and stayed down until the medical staff was able to help him off the court.

At the 13:46 mark in the second half, James Bush was whistled for a technical foul and the Mavericks capitalized by hitting the two foul shots as well as hitting a three from the wing to cap off a 12-2 run by UNO.

Western would not go down without a fight, though. Midway through the second half, the Griffons went on an 11-0 run to cut the lead to 12, but that is as far as they would get.

The Griffons committed 15 turnovers in the game compared to Nebraska-Omaha’s seven. The Mavericks also shot 55 percent from three point range and over 50 percent from the field. The Griffons struggled from beyond the arc as well as from the field. Western finished just 7-22 from three point range.

The Griffons fall to 14-9 on the season and 9-7 in the MIAA.

“This game was pretty much a must win for us, now we need to come out and take care of business these last four games,” said senior forward Quentin Noblin.

Coming into the game the Mavericks and Griffons were ranked seventh and eighth, respectively, in the region. With the loss, the Griffons have their work cut out for them to earn a bid to the NCAA Division II tournament.

“We will have to come back and win at least three of our last four or else we are going to be out,” Coach Tom Smith said.
Western will have to bounce back at Truman State on Saturday, Feb. 20, in Kirksville, Mo.