Published: December 17, 2006 12:17 am         

Baker, Legg lead MSU past Golden Bears 89-80

MONTGOMERY — A week after making their longest road trip of the season to California, Mountain State University made its shortest, busing 50 minutes to take on WVU Tech.

The results this time were much sweeter for the Cougars.

Yusef Baker kept MSU in the game early and then turned it over to Ralph Legg as the Cougars pulled away from pesky WVU Tech late in an 89-80 victory at the Baisi Center Thursday.

MSU had gone 1-1 in the Azusa Pacific Tournament last week.

This time, Tech looked like it would add to the Cougars’ road woes of late, going ahead by as many as 10, 37-27, late in the first half.

It might have been worse were it not for Baker, who had 14 points and nine rebounds in the first half.

“I thought Yusef Baker single-handedly kept us in the game in the first half,” MSU coach Bob Bolen said. “We weren’t shooting well, we looked sluggish. Yusef did everything he could and really, he kept us in it.”

Baker started MSU’s run to get back in the game, with a three-point play, to cut the Golden Bears’ lead to seven.

Then, Ralph Legg took over.

He had two threes and a pair of free throws to cut Tech’s lead to 39-38, before Tech’s Jeraude Lowe hit a trey to close out the first half.

Legg didn’t stop in the second half.

He had two threes on a 12-2 Tech run to open the half and give MSU a six-point lead.

From there it was a struggle for Tech to get back in the game.

“We were struggling offensively,” Legg said. “I wanted to do something to help us out. I felt like I was going to have a good shooting night in warmups. I can tell by my release. Somebody needed to get going.”

Paul Wright, the Cougars’ leading scorer at about 26 points per game, was held scoreless in the first half. But his mere presence made a difference.

“Obviously, Ralph Legg was the best player on the court tonight,” Tech coach Bob Williams said. “I knew he was an All-American, I saw him play in junior college. But a lot of our focus was on Paul Wright. Maybe I underestimated Legg a little too much.”

Legg finished with 27 points (5-of-9 on three-pointers) and seven rebounds. Baker had 17, all but three in the first half.

“I thought Ralph took over the game in the second half,” Bolen said. “He put the team on his shoulders. It was a great performance.”

Tech would cut the lead to six late in the game on a three by Brent Butler. After Legg made one of two free throws, one of the few things he missed, Ivan Funcic’s putback cut it to five.

But another Legg free throw made it a six-point game and then Tyrice Watkins got a defensive rebound and got the ball to Wright, who sank another to make it a three-possession game with 33.7 seconds left. Watkins then caused a turnover and the ball went to Wright, who scored uncontested to put the game out of reach.

Wright and Jarvis Jackson each had 14 points for MSU and Watkins had a game-high 12 points. Baker finished with 11 boards for MSU, which outrebounded Tech by 49-42.

Tech was led by Armand Ivory’s 24 points. Louis Rome had 16, Brent Butler 15 and 10 boards and Lowe 12.

Tech (5-6) can lick its wounds a little, busing to Florida for a five-day stay to play in a tournament.

MSU is off until Dec. 28.

— E-mail: demorrison@

register-herald.com



MSU 89, WVU Tech 80

Mountain State University (10-3) 

Ralph Legg 8-15 6-10 27, Tyrice Watkins 2-4 1-1 5, Adron Marshall 0-1 0-0 0, Paul Wright 3 -15 7-10 14, Yusef Baker 7-11 2-3 17, Emmanuel Coulibaly 0-3 1-2 1, Jarvis Jackson 4-6 5-8 14, Renardo Dixon 3-6 0-0 9, Devin Hawes 1-4 0-0 2, Ermin Tarcin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-65 22-34 89.

WVU Tech (5-6) 

Armand Ivory 10-21 4-4 24, Brent Bultler 4-14 4-4 15, Jeraude Lowe 4-8 0-0 12, Jody Poole 1-6 4-4 7, Louis Rome 6-12 4-10 16, Ivan Funcic 1-6 2-3 4, Darryl Slack 1-6 0-0 2, Justin Reissmann 0-1 0-0 0, Jeremy Willis 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 27-76 18-25 80.

Halftime — WVU Tech 42-38. 3-Point Goals — MSU: 11-29 (Legg 5-9, Wright 1-8, Baker 1-1, Coulibaly 0-1, Jackson 1-1, Dixon 3-6, Hawes 0-3); WVU Tech: 8-26 (Butler 3-8, Lowe 4-5, Poole 1-5, Ivory 0-2, Funcic 0-2, Slack 0-3, Willis 0-1). Fouled Out — MSU: Baker; WVU Tech: Rome. Rebounds — MSU: 49 (Watkins 12, Baker 11); WVU Tech: 42 (Butler 10). Assists — MSU: 14 (Watkins 4, Jackson 4); WVU Tech: 14 (Butler 6). Total Fouls — MSU: 17; WVU Tech: 25. A — 622.