December 5, 2009

RedStorm fall to Brescia at home

Rio Grande --- The University of Rio Grande RedStorm men's basketball team returned to the Newt Oliver Arena for the first of a three-game homestand on Saturday afternoon, hosting Brescia University. The two teams played a hard fought, closely contested game with the visitors coming out on top 84-77.

Rio Grande (4-6) led only briefly in the game but played hard. The RedStorm would fall behind and battle back to tie the game (there were eight ties in the game), but just could never sustain a rally long enough to gain a sizeable lead. 

Brescia (5-4) led by as many as five points in the first half (9-4) while Rio would hold a 31-27 lead with about three remaining in the opening half. With the score tied at 34-34 in the waning seconds, Brescia's Hugh Weiskittel nailed a three-pointer to give the Bearcats a 37-34 halftime lead. Brescia would never fall behind again in the game. 

Brescia's largest lead was at nine points (79-70). Rio again would make a late surge and after a P.J. Rase (Wheelersburg, OH) three-pointer, the RedStorm trailed 80-77 with 12 seconds left in the game. Brescia salted the game away at the free throw line, going 21-of-25 from the charity stripe in the second half. 

Sophomore forward Bud Teer (Cleveland, OH) again garnered another double-double, his seventh of the season, with 19 points and 16 rebounds. Freshman forward Daniel Marti (Valencia, Spain) poured in 17 points and pulled down eight rebounds while Rase scored 16 points. 

Junior forward Meau Jones (Hartwell, GA) was on the verge of double figures with nine points off the bench to go along with six rebounds. Sophomore guard Brad Cubbie (Dayton, OH) handed out a game-high five assists.

Brescia played only seven players in the game and only five of them scored, all in double figures. Andrew Howard paced the Bearcats with 22 points while Weiskittel added 20 points and eight rebounds to the winning cause. 

Rio Grande assistant coach Heath McKinniss talked about Rio not being able to get over the hump in the second half. "That's kind of been a trend the last couple of games, trying to find that stop or couple of stops or couple of plays late in the game offensively to finish out a game or to put us ahead and able to go on and win," he said. "We haven't been able to do that the last couple of games."

McKinniss also commented on Rio's defensive strategy late in the game to give them a chance and how Brescia responded. "We knew that they guys that played a lot of minutes and we were trying to see if we couldn't wear them down and get the plays made on our end and we weren't able to do that," McKinniss said. "We tried to mix some defenses and things like that, Brescia responded well, they played well and made their free throws down the stretch."

Rio will get a chance for revenge when the two teams hook up again January 6 in Owensboro, KY.

Rio will get a week off before returning to the floor to face arch-rival Shawnee State in the Newt Oliver Coaches Classic Game next Saturday (December 12) at 6 p.m. Shawnee State defeated Rio Grande 87-77 when the two played November 17 in Portsmouth. 

Stretch Internet will provide play-by-play coverage beginning at 5:45 p.m.