Fort Wayne, Ind. ? The UMKC men's basketball team's
road blunders continued, as it dropped a 79-70 Summit League contest at IPFW on
Saturday afternoon at Memorial Coliseum.
The Kangaroos led 64-63 with 6:40 remaining, but the Mastodons used a
16-6 spurt to close out the game to run out nine-point winners.
IPFW opened the game strong by hitting 8-of-its-first-13
shot attempts to build an 18-10 advantage at the 11:58 mark. Six straight points by Tim Blackwell brought
the Kangaroos back to within two points at 18-16 with 10:27 left in the half.
After a Zeljko Egeric field goal, junior Dane Brumagin
scored six consecutive points to give UMKC the 22-20 lead. The forward then scored 13 points over the
final seven plus minutes of the half to help the Kangaroos build a 10-point
lead at 41-31. The Mastodons proceeded
to score five-of-seven points in the final minute to close the gap to 45-38 at
the break.
Brumagin finished with 23 first half points on 10-of-11
shooting. Over the last two halves of
play, the forward has netted 52 points, as he scored 29 in the second half
alone at Oakland
on Thursday night.
The Mastodons came out of the intermission quickly, as it scored
seven points in the first minute of the second half to even the game at 45
all. The Kangaroos then got two quick
buckets by Blackwell to stretch their lead to four (49-45), and they maintained
their advantage until the 10:45 mark when IPFW evened the tally at 57.
Brumagin scored the next five points to put UMKC up 62-57
with 9:11 left in the game, but the Mastodons answered with six straight to
take the 63-62 lead. Brumagin then hit a jumper to put the Kangaroos back on
top (64-63), but that would be the team's last lead of the game.
IPFW then took control, as it went on a 16-6 spurt to close out
the game to run out 79-70 winners. The
Kangaroos had just two players ? Brumagin and Blackwell - score in the second
half, as they were limited to just 25 points over the final 20 minutes of play.
UMKC shot .444 (24-54) from the floor and .421 (8-19) from
long range in the game. The Mastodons,
meanwhile, shot .509 (15-29) from the field and .438 (7-16) from three-point
land in the victory. IPFW also held the
advantage on the boards (31-28), and it had 21 assists to the Kangaroos' 11.
Brumagin finished with a game-high 35 points on 14-of-20
shooting. He also led the team with five
rebounds. Blackwell was the only other
player in double figures with 19 points, 13 of which came in the second half.
Juraun Burrows led a group of four IPFW players in double
figures with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
Guard Demetrius Johnson, meanwhile, posted a triple-double with 17
points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists.
UMKC (3-7, 0-2) will have a week to regroup, as the squad
will host Wichita
State on Dec. 15 at Municipal
Auditorium.
