February 26, 2010

RedStorm lose at Pikeville College

Pikeville, Ky. --- The University of Rio Grande RedStorm men's basketball team was plagued by a bad five minute span of time on Thursday night at the East Kentucky Expo Center and it resulted in a 94-80 loss to the Pikeville College Bears. 

Rio Grande (5-24, 0-13 MSC) was again able to hold up early against a very good Bears team as the score was tied nine times in the first half and the RedStorm carried a 31-30 advantage to halftime. 

Pikeville College (21-7, 8-5 MSC) exploded in the second half and out-scored Rio Grande 20-7 in the opening five minutes of the period to take control of the game at 48-37. The Bears would get the lead to a high as 19 points (69-50) thanks to 68.8 percent (22-of-32) shooting from the field in the second half. 

Rio shot well from the field in the second half as well, connecting on 15-of-29 (51.7 percent) attempts, including 4-of-7 (57.1 percent) from long range. 

Rio Grande was led by senior guard P.J. Rase (Wheelersburg, OH) with 18 points. Freshman forward Daniel Marti (Valencia, Spain) followed up with 12 points and sophomore forward Shaun Gunnell (Columbus, OH) nearly produced a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds. 

Junior forward Wendell Bates (Akron, OH) led the RedStorm in assists with five. 

Pikeville ended up with five players scoring in double figures with Justin Hicks leading the way with 20 points. Jonathan Clark added 16 with six assists to his credit while Trevor Setty scored 13 off the bench to go along with seven rebounds. Andre Thornton tossed in 11 points and Anthony Smith chipped in with 10. 

For the game, Rio Grande shot a respectable 43.1 percent (25-of-58) from the field while Pikeville ended the game at 48.5 percent (32-of-66). 

"We had some breakdowns defensively and give them credit they attacked and picked it up offensively (in the second half) and took advantage of some mismatches we had," said Rio Grande head coach Ken French. "I thought our guys battled and played hard, offensively we kind of got out of rhythm there because they got very physical with us and we didn't have any freedom of movement with our shooters and that hurt P.J. and Doug (Campbell) and that kind of limited us offensively a little bit."

"We're not going to sit down and lock up anybody defensively and they found some weaknesses and took advantage of it and had that one stretch and in that five minute stretch - that's the difference in the game," French added. "We've got to make some adjustments and do some things and our guys play hard and they battled back to keep it a game."

"We're not as bad as what people think; we've been in games and we play hard. We've just got to get some more bodies in here so we can have full ammunition, so to speak," French said. 

Pikeville was able to take the season series from the RedStorm with the victory.

Rio Grande will close out the 2009-10 regular season at home on Saturday versus NAIA No. 10 Georgetown College. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. following the women's game. Stretch Internet will have play-by-play coverage beginning at 3:45 p.m. 

Rio lost the contest earlier this season with the Tigers by a score of 82-60 at Georgetown, February 4.