Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category
Western sweeps SBU
Last Updated on Thursday, 11 March 2010 07:54 Written by Jessica Koch Thursday, 11 March 2010 07:54
The Missouri Western Griffons traveled to Bolivar, Missouri, the weekend of March 5 to take on Southwest Baptist University and dominated the field as they swept them 4-0.
After losing all four games against Fort Hays the weekend before, the Griffons were looking to turn things around and improve their record.
After getting the right mindset going into the games, everything else just clicked.
Senior Trevor Hannum prepares to bat during a Western game last year. This past weekend, the Griffons swept SBU 4-0. Photo | Marty Ayers
“We went down there with the goal to beat them four times and sweep, anything less would have been unacceptable,” said senior outfielder Trevor Hannum. “The way we approached the weekend was what we did best.”
The games Friday ended positively for the Griffons when they won 4-2 and 8-0. The good start helped raise the confidence of the team and end the meeting with the Bearcats with a four-game sweep.
“The wins helped our confidence a lot, because you never want to start out conference 0-4 and it gives us a lot of momentum leading into playing the rest of our conference series at home,” said senior pitcher Corey White.
The Griffons just simply outplayed Southern Baptist the whole weekend, having stellar pitching performances by Andrew Hebrard, John Cochran and Chris Sundvold
They also produced their first errorless game as a team, which helped immensely.
“That was big for us as a team, the wins this week helped us get closer to finding our identity,” Hannum said.
The winning streak against Southwest Baptist continued on Saturday as the Griffons pulled out two wins: 9-3 and 6-2.
Both teams got close to an equal amount of hits all four games, with Western garnishing up 38 and SBU making contact 32 times. Yet, Western was able to take advantage of their hits and contribute more runs than the Bearcats.
“Our defense played a lot better than we did against Fort Hays,” White said.
The team expects to take the momentum of the sweep and turn it into positive play for the remainder of the season. After the successful weekend, Griffon baseball improved their record to 6-4 overall and 4-4 in conference play, while Southern Baptist dropped to 2-13 overall and 1-7 in the conference.
The Griffons finally will play ball in St. Joseph territory on Saturday, March 13, against Missouri Southern.
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Women fall to SBU
Last Updated on Thursday, 4 March 2010 09:34 Written by Anthony Crane Thursday, 4 March 2010 09:34
The Missouri Western Griffons fell for the final and eighth straight time in the 2009-2010 season this past Saturday. They lost to Southwest Baptist 68-55.
The Griffons came out hot, starting the game with six straight points. The Bearcats then came storming back to tie it at six. After a three pointer by guard Rachel Graves, the Bearcats would take the lead and didn’t look back. The Griffons finished the season 7-20 and 5-15 in the MIAA.
The Bearcats dominated the first half and after taking the lead with 15:48 left and manhandled the Griffons for the next 10 minutes, going up by as many as 11. The Griffons would not go away easily though, as they outscored the Bearcats 11-4 in the final four minutes.
The run helped the Griffons make the game interesting and they were able to go into halftime down 30-33. Abby Stone was the Griffons leading scorer at the break with eight points and sophomore Jessica Koch followed with seven. For the Bearcats, Rachel Graves was the first half’s leading scorer with 10 points.
The Griffons shot 41 percent on 12-29 from the field and only 20 percent from three-point range, hitting only one in the first half. The Griffons’ defense stepped up their inside game holding the Bearcats to just 37 percent shooting and 27 percent from beyond the arc. Southwest Baptist took 18 threes in the first half and the Griffons knew they would have to hold them to a low percentage to beat them.
“We knew coming in they had a lot of good three-point shooters and we just had to slow them down,” forward Jessica Koch said.
Junior Rachel Luteyn goes up for a shot against a Southwest Baptist defender during Western’s game against the Bearcats this past Saturday. Photo | Matt Fowler
The second half was a whole new ball game. The Griffons took all the momentum into the locker room and wanted to keep up the pace in the second half. For the first five minutes, they did everything in their power to keep up, bringing it to a one-point game twice.
Southwest Baptist then started using their deadly half-court trap and the Griffons just couldn’t figure it out.
“I think one of our biggest problems was their half-court trap and us on offense turning the ball over,” Koch said.
The Griffons turned the ball over 15 times in the second half which lead to 18 points for the Bearcats.
The Griffons got the game within seven after a layup from Koch, but that was as close as they would get. Southwest Baptist pulled away after that going on a 10-4 run and ending the Griffons’ season on a sour note. Jessica Koch led the Griffons with 16 points, while Rachel Graves had 17 for Southwest Baptist.
Though the season didn’t go the way the team wanted it to, there are some positives that the team can take into next year.
“If you watched the game, we had 15-20 shots where we were right under the basket, so you make three-quarters of those and we win the game,” head coach Lynn Plett said. “So the team had the opportunities and knows the offense.”
There are some things he would really like to see them improve on.
“Number one, we have to improve on our confidence and just be more mature about things,” Plett said.
The Griffons finished their season at 7-20 overall and 5-15 in the MIAA.
Posted under Women's Basketball | No Comments
Men top Central, SBU
Last Updated on Thursday, 4 March 2010 09:25 Written by Matt Gleaves Thursday, 4 March 2010 09:25
Missouri Western sent their seniors out with a win and three game winning streaks that was capped off with an 86-72 win against Southwest Baptist Saturday night.
SBU won the opening tip and quickly turned it into three points after a Western foul on a lay-up that dropped and a free throw that followed.
The lead wouldn’t last long, though. The crowd got behind the Griffons and helped them to take the lead at 9-6 early in the first half.
“The crowd’s energy was everything tonight,” senior Marcus Jones said. “If we had been on the road I don’t know that the outcome would have been the same.”
Brandon Beck dunks the ball after a fast break during Western’s game against the Southwest Baptist Bearcats. The Griffons won 86-72. Photo | Dave Hon
The Griffons battled through a back and forth first half to take a six-point lead into halftime as well as most of the momentum of the game.
Southwest Baptist came out in the second half and quickly started to chip away at the Griffons lead and with just over three minutes into the second half, the lead had evaporated to just a single point.
Western quickly grabbed the momentum back when Brandon Beck stole a pass at half court and outran his defender down the court to throw down a dunk that brought the crowd to their feet. From that point forward, the Griffons wouldn’t give up the lead the rest of the game.
SBU played the statistics late in the first half as they started fouling the Griffon ball handlers in the backcourt with four minutes remaining in the game. Coming into the game the Griffons were only shooting 59 percent from the foul line as a team and were forced to try and win the game from the charity stripe.
Western would go on to hit 20 of 27 free throw attempts in the game and ice the game late in the second half.
“For a team shooting 59 percent from the free throw line, I was very happy with how well we closed out the game from the line,” head coach Tom Smith said.
Western will turn around and play the Bearcats again in the first round of the MIAA tournament and will look to do many things the same to get a first round win against SBU.
“We knew this was going to be a big game for seeding in the tournament and we want to wear the white jerseys against them when we play them again,” Martin Nolan said.
Western will be the fourth seed and Southwest Baptist will be the fifth seed when they meet in the first round of the tournament.
Western finishes the regular season 17-10 overall and 12-8 in the MIAA. They will play in a rematch with Southwest Baptist in the first round of the MIAA tournament March 5 at 2:15 p.m.
Posted under Men's Basketball, Sports | No Comments
Women fall to Truman State in final road game of season
Last Updated on Friday, 26 February 2010 01:44 Written by Anthony Crane Friday, 26 February 2010 01:44
The Griffons fell for the seventh straight time 73-67 to Truman State in Kirksville last Saturday.
Freshman Kayla Vice’s 19 points couldn’t pull Western past Truman, as the Griffons fall to 7-18 overall and 5-13 in the MIAA.
It was back and forth through the first twelve minutes of the game before each team went on a pair of runs. The Bulldogs went on a 12 to three run to give them an eight-point lead. Then over the last four minutes, the Griffons went on an 11 to six run, putting them down 35-29 at halftime.
At the half, Charlonda Bozeman led Missouri Western with seven points, while forward Jessica Koch led the team with eight rebounds.
Jessica Koch tries to move past a defender during Western’s last home game. This past Saturday the Griffons fell to Truman State 67-73. Photo | Matt Fowler
Each team had 22 rebounds in the first half. The Griffons went to the free throw line more than Truman but only shot 60 percent, while Truman shot five of six and 83 percent. The biggest lead of the first half was when the Bulldogs were up by eleven. Truman had three players with six points in the first twenty minutes.
The second half started and the Griffons tried to cut into the lead of the Bulldogs, but the Bulldogs weren’t going to give it up easily. After the media timeout, when Western was down by six, they were then able to go on an 11 to four run.
With nine minutes to go, Vice gave the Griffons a 48-47 lead. That though would be the last time they would see the lead, as the Bulldogs then went on a 9-3 run. That would be it for the Griffons in Kirksville, as they fell for an unlucky seventh straight time.
“Losing the game was disappointing for us,” Jessica Koch said. “We just didn’t start off the game with as much intensity as we needed to have against them because they came out strong.”
The Griffons were led by Vice with 19 points and Brittany Casady followed with 10 respectively. Koch had a career high 13 rebounds, but the Western women were still out-rebounded 39 to 43, which has been a big problem in all their losses this year.
“Defending the three has been an issue as well as keeping the other team from getting rebounds,” Koch said.
The Griffons will finish up the season playing the Southwest Baptist University Bearcats on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 5:30 p.m.
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