Kansas
City, Mo. -- The UMKC men's basketball team dropped a 76-71
road contest at IPFW on Thursday night at Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne.
The Kangaroos had four players score in double digits in the defeat with
Bakari Lewis leading the way with 17 points.
UMKC jumped out to a
6-0 lead behind four quick points by Dustin Dibble before the Mastodons fought
back to even the tally at 11 at the 14:30 mark.
The tie was the first of five ties and three lead changes in the opening
20 minutes of play.
With the score even
at 20, the Kangaroos scored six straight and nine of 12 points to grab a 29-23
lead at the 6:37 mark. Freshman Latreze
Mushatt accounted for five points during the spurt. The Mastodons then turned the tables with a
14-2 run to take a 37-31 advantage, but UMKC netted the final six points of the
half to even the score at 37 heading into the break.
The ?Roos extended
their run to 12-0 as they scored the first six points of the second half to
make the score 43-37. The squad then
maintained the advantage until the 11:35 mark until David Carson's three-point
play put IPFW up 48-47.
After a pair of
James Humphrey free throws put UMKC back up a point (49-48), the Mastodons used
a 14-7 run to build a 62-56 lead with 6:45 to play. ?Don guard Ben Botts fueled the run with all
14 points, as he drained four three-pointers over the four-minute stretch.
The Kangaroos kept
fighting as they used a 9-4 run to climb to within a field goal (68-66) with
1:22 remaining. That, however, would be
as close as they would come, as IPFW made all eight of its free throws over the
final 54 seconds to run out 76-71 winners.
UMKC finished with a
.434 (23-53) field goal percentage and a .316 (6-19) mark from long range. The Mastodons, meanwhile, shot .471 (24-51)
from the floor and .368 (7-19) from the distance.
Lewis made 6-of-16
shot attempts en route to his 17 point scoring output and he dished out six
assists. Dibble finished with a
career-best 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting, Mushatt scored 14 and Trey
McKinney-Jones added 11.
Botts, meanwhile,
led a group of four IPFW players in double figures with 22 points on a 6-of-7
night from the floor.
UMKC (7-23, 3-14)
will close out its season on Saturday in Rochester,
Mich., against Oakland.
