Grizzlies earn home win over St. Louis Archers

When the buckets don't fall your way, you must find other ways to win, and that's just what the Missouri State University-West Plains (MSU-WP) Grizzly Basketball team did Wednesday evening.

The Grizzlies stepped up their defensive effort and took a 70-56 decision at home over the St. Louis Community College Archers. The win ups their overall season record to 8-4.

"We had a hard time scoring tonight, but credit to St. Louis Community College because that's what they do. They slow the game down and run a lot of actions," Grizzly Basketball Head Coach Jared Phay said.

The Grizzlies found themselves in a battle with the Archers in the first half, but thanks to their defense and 13 turnovers by the Archers, the Grizzlies went into the halftime break with a 36-35 advantage.

MSU-WP turned up the defensive pressure in the second half and expanded on that lead to secure the victory.

"I was impressed with our grit," Phay said. "When things weren't easy for us, we just had to keep battling and find other ways to win."

Two Grizzlies were able to find the basket fairly consistently against the Archers. Freshman guard James "Scooter" Williams led the team in scoring with 22 points while adding eight rebounds to his tally sheet. Sophomore point guard Martaveon Jones pumped in 20 points and dished out five assists.

Sophomore guard Byron "Tre" Breland continued to do a little bit of everything for the Grizzlies, scoring 11 points and seven rebounds.

"I'm always impressed with Scooter, and I felt like he and Martaveon really played well together last night," Phay said.

The Archers' Ahian Barnett and Kameryn Hubbard both had 15 points in the loss, which dropped the team to 6-5 on the season.

The Grizzlies return to Region 16 action Saturday when they play Moberly Area Community College in Moberly. Tipoff is 7 p.m.

"Now we have to turn the page and get ready for Moberly on the road," Phay said. "We have to pick our spots to attack on offense against them. Moberly is very talented, so we need to play this well defensively, but we also need to make some shots."

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