BOLIVAR, MO. — This time Southwest Baptist finished the job.
In their first meeting of the season, ESU and SBU went toe-to-toe deep into the second half before ESU pulled out a three-point win.
In the rematch, however, no late-game heroics were needed as the Bearcats defeated the Hornets 79-66 on Tuesday at the Meyer Sports Center.
“We’ve made mistakes all year,” Moe said. “We’re going to make mistakes. We just can’t flood the game with mistakes. It puts so much pressure on your offense, so much pressure on your defense and it puts so much pressure on having to get every rebound.”
ESU led by five early before SBU’s offense got rolling and led 30-24 with 4:09 to go in the first half. But then the wheels fell off for ESU and the Bearcats finished with a 16-8 run and led 46-32 at the break.
SBU’s run was aided by a couple threes and two ESU technicals — one on Taylor Euler and the other on Moe. Moe’s technical came after Adam Holthaus drove to the paint for a layup and SBU was called for an intentional foul.
Holthaus hit the floor hard and stayed there for a bit before getting up and making 1 of 2 from the line.
In the first 20 minutes, ESU shot a chilly 10 of 24, had just four assists and committed nine first-half turnovers. In contrast, SBU made 15 of 32 and had 12 assists and just six turnovers.
“I thought we played hard,” Moe said. “Our effort was there. We were competing and trying to do the right things but Baptist played great and we just made so many mistakes, it’s hard to keep recovering over.”
In the second half ESU pulled within 11 at 54-43 but SBU (11-11, 8-8 MIAA) answered with a layup and a three to push its lead back up to 16 with 10:28 to go. The Bearcats upped their lead to 19 at the eight-minute mark and the deficit eventually grew to 22.
ESU had 17 turnovers in the game and was out-rebounded 35-25.
“At some point we’ve got to start doing all the things we need to do to win a game,” said Jarvis Nichols, who scored 10. “We talk about us being a great team and it’s time.”
Michael Tyler led ESU with 15 points and four rebounds and made 6 of 7 from the floor. Tyler scored 15 of ESU’s 22 bench points. ESU, however was outscored 40-22 off the bench.
“We still feel like we’re a great team,” Tyler said. “We think we’re just as good as anybody in the MIAA. It’s just a matter of coming together and putting all of our talents on the floor.”
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busybody (anonymous) says...
It is past time for MOE to GO ! !
February 9, 2011 at 9:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )