Kansas City
Grand Canyon
'Roos Close Home Slate with 70-65 Victory Over GCU
2/28/2015 10:29:00 PM | Men's Basketball
(Kansas City, Mo.) - The UMKC men's basketball squad finished its home schedule in style on Saturday night, pulling off a comeback win over Grand Canyon, 70-65, and finishing 6-1 at home in league play, the best ever at UMKC.
Reese Holliday celebrated Senior Night with a career-high 24 points in the game, going 16-of-17 from the line. As a team, UMKC hit 29-of-34 from the stripe in the game for a season-best 85 percent.
The victory also means that UMKC will have a winning record in conference play for the first time since 2005-06 when it went 11-5.
“I thought we really defended tonight,” Head Coach Kareem Richardson said. “That Grand Canyon team, from one through five, are really explosive so to hold them to 5-of-21 from three was huge. Both seniors were big for us, (Reese) made his mind up he was going to get to the rim and he was big-time tonight.”
UMKC (13-17, 8-5 WAC) jumped out fast, taking a 9-3 lead in the opening four minutes. The 'Lopes cut it back to one a few minutes later, but the 'Roos stretched it back to five on two more occasions, the latter coming at the 7:44 mark on a three by Deshon Taylor to make it 20-15, but that's when it all started to go wrong on offense.
The 'Roos didn't score another point the rest of the way and Grand Canyon (16-14, 7-6 WAC) closed the half on a 12-0 run to take a 27-20 lead into the locker room.
UMKC fell behind by nine early in the half, but stayed with it, locking down on the defensive end. The 'Roos kept the margin within a couple possessions until the 9:35 mark when Holliday went to work. He scored a put-back to give the 'Roos their first lead of the half at 44-43.
It was the first of seven lead changes down the stretch. The last of the seven ties in the second half came with 2:49 to play, but a pair of Martez Harrison free throws put the 'Roos up 61-59 with 2:41 to play. The 'Roos would not allow the 'Lopes to get the lead back, answering with big buckets each time. Senior Frank Williams hit one of the biggest shots with 1:50 on the clock to push the lead to four. After trading free throw shots, GCU hit a three to cut it back to a two-point lead with 54 seconds left. That is when Harrison nearly iced it, hitting a tough runner on the right side of the lane with 24 seconds left.
Harrison tallied 21 points in the game, while Holliday's 24 was the game-high. Taylor also dropped in 13 points on the night. Thaddeus Smith finished with a game-high nine rebounds, and the 'Roos out-rebounded the 'Lopes 33-31, the second time in as many nights that UMKC held a rebound edge.
As a team, UMKC shot only 37 percent in the game and went 3-of-21 from three, but found a way to win, shooting 50 percent in the second half.
The 'Roos will finish the regular season next Saturday at Texas-Pan American for a 2 p.m. game televised on the American Sports Network. A win would wrap up a second place finish in the WAC, and the No. 2 seed in the league tournament.
