Kansas City
Seattle
Seattle?s Red-Hot Offense Too Much for ?Roos, 74-56
2/19/2015 1:59:00 AM | Men's Basketball
(Seattle, Wash.) – Seattle took a lead midway through the first half and never let UMKC back into it on Wednesday night, shooting 54 percent and taking a 74-56 victory at Key Arena.
“It was probably one of our poorest defensive efforts in league play,” Head Coach Kareem Richardson said. “We had too many defensive breakdowns tonight, and they had way too many points on open lay-ups and dunks.”
Seattle (12-13, 5-6 WAC) came out clicking on all cylinders in the opening stanza, dumping 41 points on the 'Roos (11-16, 6-4 WAC). The RedHawks also turned it over only two times against the UMKC pressure in the period, while UMKC had seven miscues.
SU pulled out of an early deadlock with the game tied at nine to make a 7-0 run and take a 16-9 lead with 14 minutes on the clock. It would lead the rest of the half, getting its advantage up to 13 with just more than a minute to play. UMKC closed it to 41-31 at the half.
Martez Harrison led the 'Roos with 10 points in the period, as the team shot 48 percent in the half. Unfortunately for UMKC though, Seattle hit 49 percent, including 10 second-chance points on nine offensive rebounds.
The second half was more competitive as UMKC forced eight turnovers and allowed only two offensive boards, but Seattle was on fire from the field, hitting 13-of-21 shots (62 percent), including 5-of-6 threes.
UMKC got the margin down to seven after back-to-back threes from Reese Holliday with 16:37 to play, but Seattle would score the game's next nine points to make it a 16-point advantage with 13:21 to go. UMKC would never recover from that, failing to get enough stops to get back into it. The largest margin was 18 points, the final score.
Harrison had a rough shooting half as well, going 1-for-8 in the final stanza for two points. Holliday led the 'Roos in scoring for the second night in a row with 17 points, while Deshon Taylor tallied 13 points. Harrison finished with 12 on the night.
As a team the 'Roos shot 44 percent in the game, while getting out-rebounded 31-22. Seattle had 18 assists to only 10 turnovers in the game. The victory meant that each team won on their home floor this season, with UMKC taking the game in Kansas City by a 75-55 margin.
UMKC will get two days on the road between games this week as it heads to CSU-Bakersfield on Saturday night to battle the Roadrunners at 9:00 p.m. CT. The game can be seen on the WAC Digital Network.
