Grizzlies host 1st region home game Saturday

The Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Basketball team will host its first home Region 16 game of the season Saturday, Jan. 11, when fifth ranked Mineral Area College comes to town.

Tipoff is 7 p.m. at the West Plains Civic Center arena.

The Grizzlies (7-11) are hoping to pick up a much-needed win after dropping their first three games following the winter break. They fell to Southwest Tennessee Community College 84-75 and No. 8 Indian Hills Community College 98-82 last weekend in the Hirsch Feed & Farm Supply Grizzly New Year's Classic. Wednesday, they dropped a 88-77 decision to Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock.

"We were right there. Even though the results weren't what we wanted, I feel like we played well enough to win for a majority of those games," Grizzly Basketball Assistant Coach Aaron Proctor said.

"Some of the things we need to clean up are timely possessions and timely stops," he added. "Indian Hills and Southwest Tennessee took advantage of that.

"Rebounding, being able to execute and finish off plays, we've struggled with that this year. The past few games have been encouraging. We've had more of those, but just not enough," he said.

Details of games

Against Southwest Tennessee, an offensive dry spell early in the second half allowed the Saluquis to jump ahead.

"We missed a few easy buckets at the rim," Proctor recalled. "We had an opportunity to make a play at the very first of the second half, but we didn't convert it, and things snowballed from that point. Southwest Tennessee played with a lot of energy coming out of the half."

The Grizzlies' leading scorers against the Saluquis were sophomore guard Sardaar Calhoun with 21 points, freshman point guard Zavien Smith 15 and sophomore guard Taevon Horton 11.

Against Indian Hills, the Grizzlies scored the first 3 points of the game, then the Warriors netted 15 unanswered points. Although the Grizzlies came back to tie it at 15-15 with 3 point buckets from redshirt sophomore forward Quentin Jones and freshman forward Alex Rodrigues, the Warriors eventually went into the halftime break up 48-37. In the second half, the Grizzlies were outscored by the Warriors 50-45.

Leading scorers for the Grizzlies against the Warriors were Jones with 24 points, Rodrigues with 15 and Horton 10.

Wednesday, the Grizzlies held a 15 point lead over the Buffaloes with a minute remaining in the first half, but the Buffaloes battled back to narrow the Grizzlies' advantage to 9 at the half. The scrappy Buffaloes finally overtook the Grizzlies in the second half for the win.

"It stayed a one or two possession game throughout the second half, but again, we couldn't get the stops and the plays we needed," Proctor said.

Leading scorers against the Buffaloes were Calhoun, Rodrigues and sophomore forward Alex Peterson, each with 12 points, and Horton and sophomore point guard D'Andre Vilmar both with 10.

"The biggest thing we need to do is to have more grit in these areas, especially late in the game or when a team goes on a run or when we have the lead," he added. "We need to put stops and scores together. We've done it in every game we've played, but there's always a point in a game when it's crucial. When we can do these things at the right time, it will determine if we can pull out these games."

Saturday's game plan

The Grizzlies hope they can put the stops and plays together Saturday against Mineral Area.

"They do some really good things. They don't run a bunch of plays, but what they do run, they do it well," Proctor said.

"They have a couple of guys who are really good in the paint, so we're going to have to neutralize their ability to score in the paint, and we'll also have to guard the perimeter. They have one player, Angelo Stuart, who is shooting 38 percent from the three and averages 16 points per game," Proctor added.

"We've been preaching that all year, keeping people out of the paint and guarding the perimeter. That's what we'll have to do Saturday against the No. 5 team in the country," he said.

For more information about the Grizzly Basketball program, visit www.msuwpgrizzlies.com or call 417-255-7991.