Kansas City
No. 3 Seattle
?Roos Furious Rally Falls Short, Season Ends in WAC Semifinals, 69-63
3/14/2015 3:09:00 AM | Men's Basketball
(Kansas City, Mo.) – The UMKC men's basketball squad showed its fight on Friday night in the WAC Tournament semifinals, but its rally fell short, 69-63 to Seattle. The deficit UMKC put itself in at the half was too much to overcome in the end.
“We just dug ourselves too big of a hole in the first half,” Head Coach Kareem Richardson said. “I was really proud of our effort in the second half, but we can't let a player like Umipig go off like that.”
Seattle (16-14) came out focused in the opening half, and took advantage of some UMKC (14-18) miscues on the defensive end. Isiah Umipig was the biggest benefactor of those miscues, getting hot and hitting seven three-pointers, several of which were open, for 21 points. The Kangaroos top scorer, Martez Harrison on the other hand, went 0-of-6 from the field and scored only one first period point.
Even with the lack of execution, UMKC fought back from an early five-point deficit to get it within one at the 12:53 mark, but at the 10-minute point, the RedHawks rallied. They hit four consecutive three-pointers to make it a 14 point game with 6:11 to play. The 'Roos didn't bring their energy level to the point it needed to by until the lead was up to 19 with 2:47 left. They went into the break trailing 34-18.
Seattle shot 57 percent in the period, while UMKC shot only 27 percent. The RedHawks also beat UMKC at its own game, turning five 'Roo turnovers into 14 points. UMKC only turned Seattle's eight turnovers into three points.
The second half saw the 'Roos battle, and held Umipig to only nine points, but the deficit was only cut to five in the final minute of play. The pressure was ramped up for the entire period, and it forced the RedHawks into some turnovers, scoring 11 points off them, but in the end the 'Roos didn't hit enough shots to pull it out.
UMKC was led by Deshon Taylor, who put up 16 points for the seconds straight night, including a crazy circus play where he drilled a three while saving the ball from going out of bounds on his own miss from the other side of the court. It was named the ESPN SportsCenter No. 1 Top Play of the night.
Reese Holliday ended his career with 15 points, while Harrison hit only 1-of-11 from the floor in the game, but got to the line and ended up with 12 points, and four assists. Umipig finished with 30 for Seattle.
Holliday was named to the WAC All-Tournament team after the conclusion of the tourney as well.
Deshon Taylor No. 1 Play on Sportscenter:
