Mountain State defeats Ohio State-Marion 127-32

By Dan Stillwell

David versus Goliath remains one of the great all-time stories.

Sometimes the little guy really does beat the big man, even in college basketball.

Mountain State University, however, was having none of that Saturday against outsized, undermanned Ohio State-Marion.

The NAIA No. 2 Cougars scored, rebounded and forced turnovers with impunity as they rolled to a 127-32 victory against the Scarlet Wave.

Mountain State (10-1) led by 37 points at the break, 58-21, and then made a 14-0 run to open the second half.

Coach Bob Bolen took off his pressure defense early, but MSU’s talent advantage was huge against a team rocked by midterm academic problems.

“That’s what a team looks like when they lose (nine) players to grades. We can’t control that,” Bolen said. “We came out and tried to play the game right, to play hard and make the right decisions.”

Six-footers Ken Marshall and T.J. Legge were the tallest players for Ohio State-Marion (3-12), which plays in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association.

MSU countered with 7-foot Franklin Jones, 6-9 Adinson Mosquera (both off the bench), 6-8 Ermin Tarcin, 6-7 Bo Harris and 6-6 Greg Grimes, among others.

Fourteen of 15 players scored for the Cougars, who broke the 100-point plateau on a Marcus Hunter three with 7:20 remaining in the game.

Five players scored in double figures, led by Harris with 17 points.

Anthony Pigram and Marcus Hunter scored 15 apiece, while Ermin Tarcin and Nick Aldridge each added 13. The Cougars were 51-of-94 from the floor (54.3 percent).

MSU held a 66-44 advantage in rebounding, paced by Harris’s 12 and Tarcin’s 11.

But MSU was even more murderous on defense, forcing the Scarlet Wave into 28 turnovers. The Cougars, on the other hand, committed five turnovers and made 18 steals.

OSM shot 16.7 percent from the floor (12-of-72) and had just three assists, all by O.J. Sims, while Tony Brown had seven and Pigram six of MSU’s 33.

Kyle Bradley led the Wave with 14 points, nine off 3-point goals. Hustling 5-10 guard Brandon Taylor grabbed 11 rebounds while Legge had 10.

“We faced a good team,” said Wave coach Ryan Miley, who moved up from assistant coach last week. “We have new guys — we don’t even know each other’s names. We’re just trying to get a team and stay together.”

MSU had not played since a win at Crichton Dec. 6.

Asked if his team had shaken off the rust, Bolen said, “It’s hard to tell in that kind of game.

“The good thing is it’s good to get a game under our belts before we go to Virginia Intermont (Tuesday).”

— E-mail:

dstillwell@register-herald.com

OHIO STATE MARION (3-13)

Brandon Taylor 3-6 0-0 6, Craig Sisler 2-15 1-2 5, Kyle Bradley 5-22 1-2 14, O.J. Sims 1-12 2-4 5, T.J. Legge 0-0 0-0 0, Ken Marshall 0-0 0-0 0, Sam Ahart 1-5 0-0 0, Abram Colegrave 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 12-72 4-8 32.

MOUNTAIN STATE UNIVERSITY (10-1)

Anthony Pigram 5-15 3-4 15, Tony Brown 3-5 0-0 9, Andrew Lee 4-9 0-0 8, Vedrin Zivic 3-6 0-0 9, Ermin Tarcin 5-7 2-5 13, Adinson Mosquera 2-3 1-2 5, Rashad Nesbitt 1-5 2-4 4, Marcus Hunter 6-7 2-2 15, Daniel Scott 1-2 0-0 2, Jamal Owens 0-4 0-1 0, Nick Aldridge 5-9 2-2 13, Josh Wamsley 1-2 0-0 3, Greg Grimes 3-3 0-0 6, Bo Harris 8-12 1-2 17, Franklin Jones 4-5 0-0 8. Totals: 51-94 13-22 127.

Halftime: MSU 58-21. Three-point goals: OSM 4-32 (Sisler 0-7, Bradley 3-15, Sims 1-5, Legge 0-1, Ahart 0-3, Colegrave 0-1), MSU 12-25 (Pigram 2-10, Brown 3-4, Lee 0-1, Zivic 3-5, Tarcin 1-1, Hunter 1-1, Aldridge 1-1, Wamsley 1-2). Rebounds: OSM 44 (Taylor 11, Legge 10), MSU 66 (Harris 12, Tarcin 11). Assists: OSM 3 (Legge 3), MSU 33 (Brown 7, Pigram 6). Blocks: OSM 0, MSU 7 (Harris 2, Jones 2). Steals: OSM 3, MSU 18 (Pigram 4, Harris 4, Hunter 3). Fouls: OSM 15, MSU 9. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: OSM (wrong player number in official book).