Kansas City Sweeps Season Series With California Baptist

Wednesday, February 19

Kansas City, MO

7:00 PM

Kansas City

14-14,6-7WAC

California Baptist

18-8,7-4WAC

California Baptist

Kansas City

Kansas City Sweeps Season Series With California Baptist

2/19/2020 9:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Final Box

Giles leads the way with 17 points; team shoots 51 percent

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – When opponents key in on one Kansas City player to score, they lose. That is what happened tonight to the visiting California Baptist Lancers (18-8, 7-4) as the Roos swept the season series after a 69-63 victory in men's basketball action. Senior Jordan Giles led five players with at least seven points netting 17 himself. Overall, the Roos (14-14, 6-7) had 28 bench points and shot 51.0 percent overall from the field.

Kansas City now has a 10-day break before hosting Chicago State Feb. 29 on Senior Day.

Giles stole the show in the first half – really the first six-plus minutes. He came out attacking the rim and it paid off scoring 10 of his team's first 12 points. At the 13:36 mark, he already had compiled his team-leading 15th double-digit effort of the year.

"I was just staying aggressive at all times. That's what I tried to do all night," said Giles, a player seeing the court for the 117th time. "We definitely have a run at the WAC championship. We just have to keep winning, go to Vegas and play with the right mindset and game plan."

California Baptist, a team that has locked down the second position in the WAC for much of the season, actually led early. After Giles' 10th point, a bucket by Ferron Flavors Jr. gave the Lancers a slim 15-12 edge.

With the scored tied 17-17 under the 12-minute media timeout, the scoring balance then went on display for Kansas City. Four different players scored during a 10-2 stretch, capped by a senior Rob Whitfield three-point play. The play was made possible thanks to a swat from junior Marvin Nesbitt Jr., on the other end sending back an attempt by CBU's Bul Kuol.

Kansas City would continue to hold at least a three-point lead the rest of the first half, settling for a 37-31 halftime edge. The Roos shot 56.5 percent (13-of-23) overall and 88.9 percent (8-of-9) from the foul line.

At the start of the second half, California Baptist cut the margin to two points twice, the last one on a lay-up from Tre Armstrong. But that is when a different Kansas City player again stepped up offensively, only this time it was Nesbitt Jr. His five-straight points forced a CBU time-out at the 14:43 mark and the Roos were up again by seven (49-42).

Two possessions later, Kansas City had its first double-digit lead of the game, 53-42, with 13:28 remaining.

California Baptist never could get over the hump down the stretch, due to the Kansas City perimeter defense not allowing easy looks. The Lancers finished the game shooting just 20 percent (5-of-25) from three-point range.

The Roos maintained at least a five-point lead the rest of the way and improved to 8-4 at home this year.

Complimenting Giles in the scoring column, junior Brandon McKissic poured in 13 and senior Javan White added 10 and a team-high nine rebounds. Nesbitt Jr., posted nine and freshman Josiah Allick had seven in 12 minutes.

Milan Acquaah was the high scorer for California Baptist with 22 points, but hit on just 1-of-10 from deep. Dejon Davis came away with 21 points and five rebounds.

As a team, California Baptist shot 35 percent from the field.

Quick Hitters

Kansas City continues to climb up the WAC standings after tonight's victory. Just last week, the Roos were in seventh place and now hold the No. 5 position all by themselves. They are one-and-a-half games behind fourth place UTRGV. If the season ended today, the Roos would earn the No. 4 seed in the tournament, since CBU is not postseason eligible.
Entering tonight, Kansas City was first in the conference and 50th in the NCAA in three-point field goal defense (.301). Tonight, the defense was even better holding CBU to 20 percent from 3-point range. In 20 of 28 games this year, opponents have been under 40 percent from that territory.
The Roos again started out strong in the first half, holding a halftime advantage for the seventh time in the last eight games. In those seven games, Kansas City is 5-2.
Kansas City becomes the first team in the conference to sweep the season series against the Lancers. Overall, the Roos improve to 3-1 against California Baptist.
Senior Jordan Giles moves over 900 career points with his 17 tonight. He now is No. 16 on the school's scoring chart with 915. He also is tied for fourth all-time with 117 career games played, tying the legendary Michael Watson.
A team ranked eighth in the conference in free throw shooting at 68.1 percent, the Roos have turned that around recently. In the last two games, the team has nailed 85.2 percent (23-of-27) from the charity stripe.
Kansas City had just nine turnovers on the night.