Cheney, Wash. -- The
UMKC men's basketball team picked up its third road victory of the season with
a 68-61 win at Eastern Washington on Thursday
night at Reese Court. The Kangaroos scored nine straight points in
the final two minutes and 9-of-11 to close out the game to tally the seven
point victory. Sophomore Spencer Johnson
recorded his fifth straight double-double in the game, as he finished with a
career-high 23 points to go along with 11 boards.
UMKC jumped out to an early 7-3 lead over the first four
minutes of the contest before EWU reeled off eight of 11 points to grab an
11-10 lead with 12:35 on the clock. The
scoring went back and forth over the next four minutes, as the Eagles led 18-17
with 7:55 to go in the half.
Eastern scored eight unanswered points to stretch its lead
to nine points (26-17) with 5:35 remaining.
The Kangaroos quickly cut the deficit to three behind back-to-back
threes from Dustin Dibble and Fred Ford, but the Eagles answered with five
straight to push their lead back to eight (31-23).
UMKC battled to within three points (33-30) with 1:32 left
in the half behind a Trey McKinney-Jones three, and margin stuck, as the squad
went into the locker room down 35-32.
EWU shot .545 (12-22) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes and more
than half of its points (18) came in the paint.
The Eagles pushed their lead back to nine points (41-32) via
Milan Stanojevic and Trey Gross three-pointers in the opening minute of the
second half. The Kangaroos, however,
responded with six straight points to get back to within three (41-38) with
16:28 to play before evening the tally at 45 with 13:02 left in the game..
The two squads battled over the next nine minutes as there
were five ties and five lead changes.
Neither team led by more than three points during the stretch. With the score even at 57, a Latreze Mushatt
tip-in put UMKC up two before a pair of Brandon Moore free throws evened the
tally at 59 with 2:30 to play.
The Kangaroos then took control of the game with nine
straight points over a 2:21 stretch. Johnson
opened the run with a jumper before Bakari Lewis nailed a pair of free throws
to put UMKC up four at 63-59.
Lewis, who was playing in just his second game as a ?Roo,
then stretched the lead to six points (65-59) with a jumper with 32 seconds to
play. After EWU missed a trey on its
ensuing possession, Mushatt knocked down a pair from the charity stripe to
stretch the lead to eight. Freshman
Dustin Dibble then capped the run with a free throw with nine seconds left
before the Eagles scored at the buzzer to make the final score 68-61.
UMKC shot .382 (21-55) from the floor and .292 (7-24) from
long range, while EWU shot .426 (20-47) from the field and .214 (3-14) from
three-point land. The Kangaroos also won
the battle on the glass, 36-35, and the squad had 14 assists to just five
turnovers in the game.
Johnson connected on 9-of-15 shot attempts and 3-of-5 from
long range en route to his 23 points, and he grabbed a game-best 11
boards. The double-double extended the
sophomore's nation-leading streak to five straight this season. Lewis was the only other ?Roo in double
figures, as he finished with 14 points and eight assists.
Moore
led a group of two Eagle players in double digits, as he finished with 16
points on a 6-of-8 night from the field.
UMKC (5-8) will return to home to Municipal Auditorium on
Monday night against UTSA.
