Published: January 06, 2008 12:19 am         

Cougars shoot past Bluefield

For the first time this season, Mountain State found itself on the short end of the halftime score.

You could hear a pin drop as the No. 1 Cougars retreated to the lockerroom.

That changed in the second half.

Mountain State regained its shooting form and got more aggressive on the boards to turn back a shorthanded, yet determined, Bluefield College squad 92-83 Saturday at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.

Bluefield was playing without leading scorer Curtis Dixon.

“Bluefield is a quality team,” a relieved MSU coach Bob Bolen said. “We told them, ‘It’s not going to be easy to win a national championship. You’re going to find yourself in these same situations. There’s still 20 minutes to play, so go get the job done.’”

It might not have been a “Win one for the Gipper” speech, but it worked.

The Cougars (14-0) overcame a 42-37 deficit, finally tying the game at 48 on an Adron Marshall three. James Spencer’s slam on the Cougars’ next possession tied it at 50 and MSU lost the lead just once from that point.

“We expected it to be tough, but not that tough,” said Marshall, who led MSU with 26 points. “I have to tip my hat to them. They played well, they have a good team. Honestly, they outplayed us, but we were fortunate to win the game.”

With the Cougars up 73-70, Marshall scored eight straight points on a three-pointer, two free throws and a three-point play to give MSU an 11-point lead, 81-70, with 5:13 left.

“I need to step up and be more of a scorer,” Marshall said.

“I want the ball when we get in those situations. We have a lot of guys who don’t mind stepping up. Tonight was my night. I thought that was big because it gave us some relief.”

“That was clutch shooting by Adron, but we expect that from him,” Bolen said. “James Spencer drove the middle and got him a wide-open look on that three and then he used his speed to get ahead of (Bluefield’s) defense and got the and-1. He’s hit a lot of those clutch shots for us this year.”

Still, NAIA Division II No. 18 Bluefield didn’t go away. The Ramblin’ Rams cut it to 87-81 and had a chance to get closer when Dantae Gholson had a wide-open look under the basket but missed it.

On the other end, Spencer drained a three.

“Tyrice Watkins gave a good ball fake,” Spencer said. “He did all the hard work. The easy part was making the shot.”

The five-point swing with 1:05 left made it 90-81.

“That was huge, and a team like Mountain State will capitalize on that,” Bluefield coach Jason Gillespie said. “This was a good test for us. We’d been scoring 96 a year and beating teams by an average of 14 points. I wish we had been on the other end of it, but this will get us battle-tested.”

“We have never played a team like that,” Spencer said. “It was a good challenge. It was good to see that and know we were able to fight through it.”

In addition to Marshall’s 26, Spencer, the second leading scorer in Division I, poured in 23 points and Jason McGriff had 15 points and 11 rebounds.

Coryon Ross had 27 to lead the Rams, followed by Omar Reed with 17, Johnny Witherspoon with 15 and Gholson with 13 and 11 rebounds.

MSU returns to action Tuesday with a 7 p.m. home game with Lindsey-Wilson.

— E-mail:

demorrison@register-herald.com



MSU 92, Bluefield College 83

BLUEFIELD (11-3)

Johnny Witherspoon 6-15 2-3 15, Coryon Ross 11-24 1-1 27, James Chapman 1-10 0-0 3, Dantae Gholson 5-10 0-0 13, Omar Reed 7-14 1-2 17, Keenan Rainer 1-4 1-2 3, Dauda Fadeyi 2-2 1-2 5, Mike Roundtree 0-1 0-0 0, Domenic Zaccaria 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 133-81 6-10 83.

MOUNTAIN STATE (14-0)

James Spencer 11-14 0-0 23, Jarvis Jackson 4-6 0-0 8, Tyrice Watkins 2-5 3-4 7, Adron Marshall 7-13 9-9 26, Jason McGriff 5-8 5-8 15, Ralph Legg 2-5 0-0 4, Denzel Lyles 0-3 0-0 0, Ricky Jackson 1-3 0-0 2, Papa Gassama 1-3 0-0 2, Ermin Tarcin 2-2 0-0 5. Totals 35-62 17-21 92.

Halftime—Bluefield 42-37. 3-Point Goals—Bluefield 11-35 (Witherspoon 1-7, Ross 4-9, Chapman 1-5, Gholson 3-7, Reed 2-6, Zacca), MSU 5-18 (Spencer 1-2, Jackson 1-1, Watkins 0-2, Marshall 3-6, McGriff 0-2, Legg 0-2, Lyles 0-2, Tarcin 1-1). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Bluefield 37 (Gholson 10), MSU 43 (McGriff 11). Assists—Bluefield 11 (Witherspoon 11), MSU 21 (Jackson 5, Watkins 5). Total Fouls—Bluefield 15, MSU 14, Technical—Bluefield coach. A—1,630.