Published: December 09, 2007 11:35 pm         

Mountain State rains threes in win over Lincoln

MONTGOMERY — Sometimes being contagious is a good thing. Mountain State coach Bob Bolen should hope all his players are afflicted with what the team had Sunday.

The Cougars hit 21 three pointers (one short of the school record) and attempted a school-record 46 in a 123-80 rout of Lincoln in the final game of the 2007 Baisi Classic at WVU Tech.

Mountain State’s James Spencer hit on all six of his trey attempts to lead the rout and finished with 29 points.

All told, the Cougars — No. 1 in the latest NAIA Division I rankings — starters hit 14-of-21 threes and nine players total had at least one triple.

“A lot of times when those threes start falling, it can become contagious,” Bolen said. “I think that’s what happened today. We hit a couple and they started falling for us.”

After a somewhat inauspicious start, including a 1-for-4 showing from the foul line, MSU found itself up by just six, 22-16, on the winless Lions.

Denzel Lyles came off the bench and hit a pair of treys on a 14-0 run (Spencer and Ricky Jackson also had treys) as the Cougars extended the lead to 20 in a matter of three minutes.

In all the Cougars would hit 10 first half treys on 20 attempts.

“Coach gave me the cue to come in and start shooting,” Lyles said. “Sometimes when the first person hits that three, it gives us the momentum to keep shooting. And we were hitting them.”

The Cougars starting five and Lyles combined to hit 17-of-28 treys.

“We shot the ball well,” Bolen said of his team, which made 52.3 percent of its shots from the floor. “We’re a good-shooting team when we get our feet set.”

MSU led 53-32 at the break.

The Cougars went over the century mark for the fifth time in their last six games, this time passing 100 when Ricky Jackson fittingly hit a three-pointer with 8:27 remaining.

Lyles had a career-high 17 and teammate Jason McGriff added 17 points and 11 boards for the Cougars.

Adron Marshall had 15 and Ricky Jackson 13.

Ladaye Johnson led the Lions with 23 points.

Spencer and Marshall were named to the all-tournament team along with Jody Poole of WVU Tech, Steven Williams of Mid-Continent and Jermaine Russell of Lincoln. Tech’s Brent Butler won the all-Academic award and Sam Robertson of Tech was the MVP of the three-day tournament.

— Email: demorrison@

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No. 1 MSU 123, LINCOLN 80

LINCOLN (0-9) 

Dan Blanton-Holcombe 4-14 5-6 13, Ladaye Johnson 8-20 2-4 23, Damon Harper 4-8 1-2 11, Jermaine Russell 6-12 4-6 16, Mike Taylor 0-2 2-5 2, Micah Wilson 1-4 0-0 3, Chris Henderson 3-13 2-3 8, Khalif Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Dominic Washington 1-4 0-0 2, Lavine Grimes 0-0 0-0 0, Eugene Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Frank Lee 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 28-81 16-26 80.

MSU (10-0) 

James Spencer 10-10 3-6 29, Jarvis Jackson 1-3 0-0 3, Tyrice Watkins 1-3 0-0 3, Adrom Marshall 6-13 0-0 15, Jason McGriff 7-10 0-2 17, Ralph Legg 1-6 0-0 2, Floyd Woods 0-0 0-1 0, Denzel Lyles 7-13 0-0 17, Daniel Scott 0-1 2-3 2, Ricky Jackson 4-6 3-4 13, Vedrin Zivic 2-5 0-0 5, Vaso Aleksic 2-3 1-2 5, Papa Gassama 3-3 0-0 6, Keron Jackson 0-4 0-0 0, Rod Green 1-5 0-0 2, Ermin Tarcin 1-3 1-2 4. Totals 27-61 24-32 85.

Halftime—MSU 45-30. 3-Point Goals—Lincoln 8-38(Blaton-Holcombe 0-7, L. Johnson 5-15, Harper 2-5, Wilson 1-4, Henderson 0-4, K. Johnson 0-1, Smith 0-1, Lee 0-1), MSU 21-46 (Spencer 6-6, J. Jackson 1-1, Watkins 1-2, Marshall 3-7, McGriff 3-5, Legg 0-4, Lyles 3-7, Scott 0-1, R. Jackson 2-3, Zivic 1-2, K. Jackson 0-4, Green 0-1, Tarcin 1-3). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Lincoln 42 (Taylor 6), MSU 59 (McGriff 11). Assists—Lincoln 12 (Taylor 4), MSU 28 (J. Jackson 9). Total Fouls—Lincoln 16, MSU 17. A—600.