November 30, 2009

Rio storms past Virginia Intermont

Frankfort, Ky. --- University of Rio Grande senior guard P.J. Rase became a marked man on Friday with his shooting exploits at the Mid-South Conference Thanksgiving Challenge at the Frankfort Civic Center. Rase led the RedStorm to a 95-51 victory over Virginia Intermont in Rio's most complete effort of the season.

Rase, the Wheelersburg, OH native, made 10-of-15 shots from long range, totaling 34 points in leading Rio Grande (4-4) to victory.

Rio jumped out to a 10-2 lead as Rase scored eight of the first 10 points. Rio never trailed in the game. Rio built the lead to 20 points at 29-9 and then went on a 9-0 run to push the advantage to 38-9 before taking a 48-18 lead to halftime.

The RedStorm had two other players score in double figures as sophomore forward Bud Teer (Cleveland, OH) produced another double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Freshman forward Victor Bande (Madrid, Spain) chipped in 10 points off the bench. 

Rio shared the ball extremely well tallying 23 assists in the game with sophomore guard Brad Cubbie (Dayton, OH) leading the way with seven. Junior guard Doug Campbell (Salisbury, NC) handed out five assists. 

The second half was more of the same as Rio out-scored VIC (0-8) 47-33. The Cobras struggled from the field, shooting only 30.4 percent (21-of-69) for the game. Virginia Intermont failed to make a three-pointer going for 0-for-21.

Wade Bryant led the Cobras with 16 points and nine rebounds while Tevan Crews added 14 points off the bench.

Rio snapped a three-game losing skid with the victory.

Rase said he liked the surroundings and the shooting background at the Frankfort Civic Center and he complimented his teammates for getting him the ball in good position. "I liked it when I first walked in," Rase said. "I was able to get open and the guys were looking for me, setting screens and they noticed in warm-ups that I was shooting good and they did the hard part, they were working hard to get me open and find me and I just happened to knock them down tonight."

Rio Grande head coach Ken French was pleased with his team's performance. "I'm very pleased," he said. "If we shoot the ball well we have a lot of energy and we got off to a great start and P.J. Rase was a big reason for us getting off to a good start,"

"He hit the shots, but we were playing team basketball," French added. "Brad Cubbie, Doug Campbell did a great job finding him and when we knock down our shots and we do get an attempt to play defense we can be pretty good and we proved that today."

Rio Grande will return to action on Saturday versus a very good University of Saint Francis (IN) team, ranked No. 23 in the pre-season NAIA Division II Top 25 poll.  Tip-off is set for 2:15 p.m. Saint Francis defeated WVU-Tech, 92-79 in the game before Rio took the floor.