January 21, 2010

RedStorm men can't end skid

Rio Grande --- The University of Rio Grande RedStorm men's basketball team was not able to change its current path on Thursday night at the Newt Oliver Arena as the losing skid swelled to seven consecutive games after a 101-71 defeat at the hands of visiting St. Catharine College. 

The game was very entertaining early on as the score was tied three times and both sides shared the lead. Rio Grande (5-14, 0-3 MSC) had a 25-22 lead when St. Catharine (13-6, 1-2 MSC) went on a 10-0 run to take control of the game at 32-25.

The Patriots were clicking in the first half as they increased the lead to 48-30, closing out the first 20 minutes of play on a 9-0 run. 

Rio Grande could never really mount a rally as the game got away from them in the second half. 

Senior guard P.J. Rase (Wheelersburg, OH), who was honored with a commemorative ball before the game in honor of scoring 1,000 points, did all he could, leading the RedStorm with 21 points. Among the 21 points, 10 came at the free throw as Rase went 10-of-11 from the charity stripe for the game. 

Junior guard Doug Campbell (Salisbury, NC) and sophomore forward Shaun Gunnell (Columbus, OH) added 12 points each. Rio sustained a huge blow when sophomore power forward Bud Teer (Cleveland, OH) went down with an injury in the first half. His immediate status is uncertain. 

St. Catharine played a solid all-around game as five players scored in double figures led by Brandon Johnson with a game-high 24 points. Josh Edwards added 20 points while Arthur Latham nearly recorded a double-double with 17 points and nine rebounds. Ervin Williams scored 12 points and collected nine boards as well and Kris Caulfield chipped in 10 points off the bench.

The Patriots shot the ball well from the field, connecting on 37-of-63 (58.7 percent) attempts, including 9-of-20 (45 percent) from three-point land.  

With the loss of Teer, who had registered 11 double-doubles on the season, the visitors also handled Rio Grande on the glass, 40-24. 

"St. Catharine played extremely well, there's no question, but I didn't see this coming because we had three great days of preparation," said Rio Grande head coach Ken French. "To be quite honest, I thought it was the three best days of practice going into a game that we had had all year."

"There was no indication that we were going to play the way that we did," French added. "That's what's disappointing. Our guys showed us for three days, they were locked in. They understood what we wanted."

"For 12 minutes of the first half we had the lead and then everything fell apart," French said. "From that point on, we had no structure, we had no urgency. All game-plan went out the window."

Rio Grande will have to re-group as it continues to press on toward that first MSC win. The task does not get any easier as the RedStorm travel to NAIA No. 14 Campbellsville on Saturday for a 4 p.m. tip-off.

Stretch Internet will have play-by-play coverage beginning at approximately 3:45 p.m.