Kansas City
5-6,1-1Summit League
University of North Dakota
2-9,1-1Summit League
Kansas City Stifles Fighting Hawks in First Summit Victory
1/3/2021 6:33:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Allick drops 23 points, McKissic adds 17 en route to the Roos' first Summit League win since rejoining
GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Following a low-scoring output on Saturday evening, the Kansas City Men's Basketball (5-6, 1-1) team wanted an efficient day on Sunday against North Dakota (2-9, 1-1). The Roos were efficient and then some, connecting on 62-percent of their shots en route to a 77-53 drubbing of the Fighting Hawks.
"It was a gut-check game for our players and they responded," Head Coach Billy Donlon said. "We beat a very good and very well-coached team."
Similar to yesterday's game, both offenses were a bit slow out of the gates. The score was 4-2 in favor of the Roos at the first media timeout, with all four of Kansas City's points coming from Josiah Allick. He continued to dominate, scoring all 10 of the Roos' points in the first eight minutes and outscoring the Hawks 10-3 by himself.
Allick finished the game with 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting, adding six rebounds. It was his fifth 20-plus point performance of the year, and he is averaging 17.8 points per game over the Roos' last six competitions.
Zion Williams was the first Roo besides Allick to score the ball, taking a Marvin Nesbitt Jr. steal all the way down the court to give the Kansas City a 12-4 advantage. Brandon McKissic got in on the action on the Roos' next trip down the floor, a sign of things to come in the second half.
As always, the Roos were stout on the defensive end of the ball, holding the Fighting Hawks without a field goal from the 18:45 mark of the first half until Gertautas Urbonavicius finally got a layup to go at the 9:30 mark. The Hawks were unable to convert on any three-point attempts in the first half and made just 7-of-18 shots, giving the Roos a 28-20 advantage at halftime.
Coming out of the intermission, the Roos' offense caught fire. McKissic opened up KC's scoring with an and-one conversion, leading to nine-straight makes from the field for the Roos. Nesbitt Jr. put a pair of shots through, Demarius Pitts added a couple of his own, McKissic converted another old fashioned three, Allick got a couple bunnies to go, and Williams put in a layup at the 13:12 mark to give the Roos their ninth-consecutive field goal and open up a 48-30 advantage.
Kansas City never looked back from that run, picking apart the North Dakota defense for 73-percent shooting in the second half. After scoring just two points in the first half, McKissic went to work for the Roos in the second, knocking down 6-of-6 shot attempts to finish with 17 points and a season-high eight boards.
Pitts put together his most complete performance of the season, finishing with 15 points and five rebounds, both season-highs. Williams reached the double-digit mark as well, putting in 5-of-7 shots for 10 points, adding five assists. Nesbitt Jr. added eight points and seven boards of his own and Franck Kamgain wrapped up the Roos' scoring with four points.
The win is Kansas City's first in conference play since rejoining the Summit League, with the last Summit win coming on March 2, 2013 against IUPUI. The Roos are slated to be back in action next weekend, with a pair of home games against South Dakota on Friday and Saturday. Both games will tip off at 7 p.m. and can be streamed live on the Roo Sports Network.
"We still have things to improve on when we get home in order to prepare for another challenging test," Donlon said.
