MBB: American Southwest Conference

[McM Blue Devil]

Congratulations to Coach Ron Holmes on his 300th Career victory at McMurry with a 77-63 win over George Fox.  It started off REAL slow as we got down 13-3, as we struggled on offense.  We finally got into gear as we led by 4 at the half and pulled away in the second half.  McM's defense was very good and we got good guard play out of Dewyane Hall with 24 and Alex Robles with 19.  Chris Beck played well in the post with 16 points. McM showed signs of being an athletic team with good chemistry.  The strength of this team will be their defensive play. We are without starting point guard Robert Moreno, with a hurt knee and Drew Rigney who is recovering from a knee injury.  We did play about 10 players deep.

LeTourneau will be a good test and a tough one at that.  It will be intersting to see how we can play against Dusty Evers and they appear to be very athletic.  Should be a good game.

That is all for now...

[golden_dome]

Good start to the season last night for MC in an 83-57 win over Pensacola Christian. We played sloppy early in the second half with PC taking a 37-35 lead with about 16 minutes to play, but we went on a 28-6 run to put the game away. Pensacola is not a great team but they weren't terrible, they play Millsaps today. That's MC's only nonconference game before travelling to Concordia and UMHB in two weeks.

A few notes from the game: Prince Trotter, Tyler Winford and Kiki Christmas each had good nights with all in double figures. Coach Lofton still played about 15 last night trying to figure out his rotation.

Everyone knows about Tyler, but Trotter and Christmas will be very good players in this league. Trotter is a 6'5" forward who was a big recruit last year. Coaches moved him to guard and he struggled, but they moved him back to his natural post position at the end of last year and he has played great since.

Christmas is a 6'4" guard who averaged 24 per game at Hinds Junior College two years ago. There were several other newcomers who played well. Bryan Johnson, a 6'7", 230 pound JUCO post player had a good night.

[etbualum]

ETBU lost to 6-0 Belhaven last night.  I think the final was by 11, but Belhaven led by 20+ at times.  The young guys showed some signs in the second half.  Crosstown rival Wiley will be at Ornelas tonight.


In positive ETBU new Cedric Isom is averaging 28 ppg through 7 games for Thor Ak in the ISL express league.  He hit a couple free throws with .2 seconds left the other night to win a game 107-106. 

[Just_Some_Guy]

A young Bulldog team loses to Jarvis Christian 80-76.

SO center JC Herebia scored 24 points, pulled down 11 boards and was a perfect 9-9 from the line.

JR wing man Nate Walton added 19 points in the loss on 5-15 shooting, and 8-9 from the line.  He knows he has to score for the Bulldogs to win, but he puts too much pressure on himself, isn't patient enough, and has never had very good shot selection. He's still one of the few Bulldogs capable of creating his own shot, or taking over a game.

The Bulldogs did shoot 81.5% from the line, and it's always great to a see a big man like Herebia be able to knock down 3s, but what was he doing shooting 3s? (1-5)  He has about as much business pulling up from downtown as Ryan Burgart.

Looks to be a long season for the Bulldogs.  If their second best low post option is David Freeman, that's not a good sign. Don't get me wrong, the guy plays with a lot of intensity, but he's never going to be a viable offensive threat.

Could Michael Hill not play the four?  He's such a gifted athlete, who's long and athletic I feel like I he could play the four, or should at least be a bigger part of the offensive scheme for the Bulldogs.

Also, Jr. Josh Scott hasn't developed into the outsider shooter they thought he would be when they got him from the Woodlands a couple of years ago.

Some young guys definitely got some significant minutes off the bench and it'll be interesting to see how this team "grows up" this year.

Just_Some_Guy

[Ralph Turner]

McMurry point guard, Robert Moreno, is injuerd and has not played in the Colorado.

LeTU is real.  They are ties with McMurry, 46-46, at the half.

Good games this weekend...
McMurry won an in-region game over George Fox from the Northwest Conference.  (Administrative Region #4).

LeTU beat Colorado College yesterday, too.  Colorado is also in Administrative Region #4 for Texas schools.

Both in-region wins help the conference!

[golden_dome]

Sul Ross beat DII Texas-Permian Basin tonight 70-51. Last night Permian Basin beat Howard Payne 108-54.

[Ralph Turner]

McM 93, LeTU 80.  McM played clutch ball down the stretch.  LeTU narrowed the game to 3 points at McM 77-74 with 5:00 left.  Phone call from McMBlueDevil who is at the game.

I will let McMBlueDevil finish the summary.

[gccfan]

I got the boxscore from the LETU-MCM game... LeTourneau led 34-22 with about five minutes to go in the first half and then MCM went on a 43-18 run over the next 10 minutes.  The Jackets closed to within three a few times later in the half, but McMurry held them off by hitting their free throws at the end.  Alex Robles came up big for MCM with five three's and 18 points to earn tournament MVP honors.  Dusty Evers had 20 points in both games and was their rep on the all-tournament team.  Should be a good one when they meet again in two weeks in Abilene.

[McM Blue Devil]

I am sorry for the delayed reporting of the game.  It was late Saturday night when I returned to the hotel and I traveled all day yesterday.  Saturday's game vs LeT was a good one.  First of all let me say that I was very impressed with the Jackets.  They are athletic and talented.  Evers is a legitimate threat but they have other weapons around him.  The game was very evenly matched.  McM had a run at the beginning of the second half that got them a 13 point lead.  The rest of the half the lead varied from 13 to 8.  Then with about 5:00 to go LeT cut it to three on sveral occasions.  McM led 84-80 with about 2 min to go and made some key defensive stops and scored the last 9 point.

I like McMurry's team.  Alex Robles and DeWayne Hall are legitmate outside threats and scorers.  Chris Beck had 2 solid games in the post and Terrance Willis gives us some athleticism inside as well. We got key play from reserve guards Glenn Brown and Curtis Davis.  We are still missing Robert Moreno.  His return will help even further in freeing up our shooters.  Plus we are still missing Drew Rigney, his return will help as well.

[#1ascfanman]

I did some looking and saw that the ASC did well as a whole on the opening weekend except for a few blunders by HPwho who got hammered by UTPB and ETBwho who lost both games this last weekend, one by 11 and the other by 19 .  Other than that pretty good start looks like .


Go Wildcats

[golden_dome]

What about Ozarks this year? They won at Division II #24 Henderson State last night 87-76. Henderson State went 23-9 last year and won the West Division of the Gulf South Conference.

Ozarks dropped their season opener last Friday 78-93 at Division I Northwestern State of the Southland Conference. Ozarks trailed 46-41 at the half and 65-59 midway through the second half. NSU went 17-15 last year and in the Southland Preseason Poll were picked to finish 2nd in the East Division.

Just a couple of impressive stats I think. Ozarks was outrebounded 42-38 against NSU and actually outrebounded Henderson State 34-33. Usually in the DI-DII games, even if you keep it close you get outrebounded by a good margin.

The only bad thing is the Henderson State win won't help Ozarks or the ASC out in the NCAA regional rankings. Still a great win though.

[#1ascfanman]

Sounds like Ozarks is for real or those teams did not take them seriously enough, many things have to be taken into account.  Either way though good start for Ozarks.  I know a few teams open up tonight, HSU for one, any others? I know ETBwhos your daddy has LSU-Shreveport, a #10 ranking in NAIA tonight as well.  Good luck LC this week at Millsaps!!!!!!

Go Wildcats

[dballa]

HPU 73 SAGU 60.  HPU played much better in this game than in the UTPB game but still had way too many turnovers. Tom Hermann led the way with 18 pts 11 rbs and Travis Dawson had 13 pts 5 stls.

[gccfan]

At the half, LeTourneau is looking pretty good against UMHB.  Both teams have played a ton of guys.  LETU has played 11 and UMHB 15.  Neiman Ford didn't make the trip, he's on the roster, but I haven't seen his name in any of their preseason boxscores so I'm not sure if he's hurt or what.  LETU quickness has been the difference so far.  UMHB has used three lineups of 5 and the third group of mostly freshman seemed to do the best for them.  We'll see what happens in the second half.

[#1ascfanman]

My Wildcats start off 1-1 on the season   Put up huge points against Huntigdon College.  They are a sleeper! Also saw a good one must have taken place against Let. and UMHB.  Hope everyone had a good Turkey Day!
Go Wildcats