Published: November 22, 2008 10:45 pm      

Mountain State bounces back with win over Morris

Statistics may not always tell the entire story, but you didn’t have to go much further than a boxscore or a running score of Saturday’s Mountain State-Morris game at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center to glean exactly what transpired on the Dave Barksdale Court.

The Cougars bounced back from their first loss of the season Thursday at the University of the Cumberlands with a 105-48 blowout of fellow Independent Region member Morris.

Straight from the running score: Mountain State scored the first 11 points of the game and 35 of the first 44. Then it scored 54 of the first 65 and 69 of the first 87 to lead 69-18 at the break.

The Hornets never got closer than 44 after that.

Straight from the stat sheet: MSU shot 59.1 percent from the field for the game. The Cougar starters went a combined 32-of-46 and each tallied in double figures for the contest.

Two MSU players had more than or as many assists as Morris had as a team (MSU had assists on 26 of its 39 baskets). MSU had as many assists as Morris had rebounds.

All in all, it was not a good day for Morris coach Clarence Houck.

“They just got off to such a fast start,” he said. “And I can’t remember this team (MSU) ever shooting as well as it did from the outside. And it wasn’t just one guy. It was all of them. Put that together with the fact that they got off to such a quick start, it wasn’t going to be a good day for us.”

For MSU coach Bob Bolen, the day’s result was much better than the debacle he witnessed in Williamsburg, Ky., when his team was dominated by Cumberlands, 89-73.

“In the first half we shot 70 percent from three-point range, after going 2-of-22 Thursday night,” Bolen said. “We shot much better from the (free throw) line. It feels much better to be on the winning side of things again.”

About the only thing negative that happened was a cold stretch late in the game. After hitting 100 (with 5:21 left) for the sixth straight time at the BRCCC, MSU was stuck on that mark for over four minutes before Daniel Scott finally made a pair of free throws with 1:06 left. Scott had a three, the Cougars’ 12th of the game (12-of-23), to finish the scoring.

“I thought we came out really focused on both ends of the court,” Bolen said. “I don’t know if that was a carryover from losing, but whatever it was, we need to keep that intensity game in, game out.”

MSU’s starters combined for 80 of MSU’s 105 points.

Bo Harris led the way with 22 points and seven rebounds. Andrew Lee had 19 and seven boards, followed by A.J. Pigram with 16 (5-of-8 from 3-point range), Tony Brown with 13 and eight assists and Ermin Tarcin, who returned to the starting lineup, with 10. It was Tarcin’s third double-figure scoring game in the last four.

Sanford Adams had 15 to lead the Hornets and Christopher Owens had 10, 9.2 below his team-leading average entering the game.

MSU returns to the convention center Tuesday for a 7 p.m. game with Bluefield College. Then the Cougars host Life next Saturday in what will be one of the key games in Beckley this season.

Life is coming off a win over Union (Tenn.) after Union had already beaten five ranked opponents, including NAIA preseason top-ranked Robert Morris.

— E-mail:

demorrison@register-herald.com



Mountain State 105, Morris 48

MORRIS COLLEGE 48 (2-4)

Justin Beaufort 1-5 1-1 3, Randall James 2-7 0-0 5, Christopher Owens 4-10 0-1 10, Nathaniel Thomas 2-7 1-2 5, Sanford Adams 7-11 1-1 15, Dorian Saab 1-4 1-2 3, Travis Griffin 0-0 3-4 3, Ricky Drummond 0-5 0-0 0, Herbert Deas 0-4 1-2 1, Jared Jackson 1-7 1-2 3, Qutavis Lowery 0-0 0-0 0, William Edwards 0-0 0-0 0, O’Brien Colbert 0-3 0-0 0. Totals: 18-63 9-15 48.

MOUNTAIN STATE UNIVERSITY (6-1)

Anthony Pigram 5-9 1-2 16, Tony Brown 4-7 2-2 13, Andrew Lee 9-13 1-1 19, Bo Harris 10-12 1-1 22, Ermin Tarcin 4-5 2-2 10, Adison Mosquero 0-2 0-0 0, Rahad Nesbitt 1-2 0-0 2, Marcus Hunter 4-7 4-4 13, Daniel Scott 1-2 2-2 5, Vedrin Zivic 0-1 0-0 0, Josh Wamsley 0-2 0-0 0, Greg Grimes 1-4 2-2 5, Rod Green 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 39-66 15-16 105.

Halftime—MSU 69-18. 3-Point Goals—MC 3-14 (James 1-3, Owens 2-7, Thomas 0-1, Drummond 0-2, Colbert 0-1); MSU 12-23 (Pigram 5-8, Brown 3-5, Harris 1-1, Hunter 1-3, Scott 1-2, Zivic 0-1, Grimes 1-2). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—MC 26 (Thomas 5); MSU 46 (Lee, Harris 7). Assists—MC 6 (Beaufort, Thomas 2); MSU 26 (Brown 8). Total Fouls—MC 18; MSU 16. A— 573.