Brookings, S.D. --
The UMKC men's basketball team fell to South Dakota State, 76-66, on Saturday
night at Frost Arena. The Jackrabbits
used a 19-4 run over the final 7:38 of the first half to build a double digit
lead and that was the difference as SDSU went on to the 10-point victory.
The action went back
and forth over the first eight minutes of the contest, as there were five ties
and eight lead changes. After a Trey
McKinney-Jones field goal evened the tally at 17 at the 17:38 mark, the Jacks went
on a 13-0 run to build a 30-17 lead.
SDSU then extended
its run to 19-4 to close out the half, as the squad headed into the locker room
with the 36-21 lead. The Jacks shot 60.9
percent in the opening 20 minutes, while limiting the ?Roos to eight field goals
and a .364 shooting clip.
South Dakota State stretched its lead to 17 points (40-23)
coming out of the break. UMKC fought
back to get to within 12 points at the 15:38 mark after Latreze Mushatt scored
six straight before James Humphrey's wrap around lay-up cut the margin to
45-33.
After SDSU built its
lead back to 17 (50-33) with 13:14 remaining, the Kangaroos closed the gap to
10 points with an 11-4 run to make the score 54-44. Sophomore Spencer Johnson's three-pointer
capped the spurt for the ?Roos.
That, however, would
be as close as UMKC would come. The
Jackrabbits had an answer to every Kangaroo basket over the final 10 minutes of
the game. Each time the team appeared to
be gaining momentum, SDSU came up with a field goal or knocked down an attempt
from the free throw line to keep the Jacks in control.
UMKC finished the
game with a .439 (25-57) field goal percentage and a .167 (2-10) mark from long
range. The Jacks, meanwhile, shot .543
(25-46) from the floor and .308 (4-13) from three-point land. SDSU also held the 34-25 advantage on the
boards.
Mushatt led a group
of four Kangaroo players in double digits in the contest. The freshman finished with a career-high 18
points on 8-of-16 shooting. Sophomore
Bakari Lewis netted 11, while Fred Ford and McKinney-Jones each added 10.
South Dakota State also had four players finish the contest in
double figures. Dale Moss led all
scorers with 27 points on 7-8 shooting (13-14 FT) to go along with nine boards.
UMKC (6-21, 2-12)
will return to action on Thursday night when it hosts Centenary at Municipal
Auditorium beginning at 7:05 p.m.
