Rio Grande Sports Information
   RIO GRANDE, Ohio - Senior guard Brad Cubbie scored 10 of his game-high 15 points in the second half, as the University of Rio Grande pulled away for an 83-59 win over Houghton (N.Y.) College, Thursday night, at the Newt Oliver Arena.
   It was the third straight win for the RedStorm, which improved its overall mark to 8-5.
   Cubbie, a native of Dayton, Ohio, led a quartet of double-digit scorers for Rio Grande, which dressed just nine players for the second straight outing.
   Senior forward Shaun Gunnell (Columbus, OH) tossed in 13 points, while junior center Dominick Haynes (Cleveland, OH) and freshman guard Evan Legg (Piketon, OH) netted 11 points apiece.
   "We had guys step up tonight and that's what we have to have every night out," said Rio Grande head coach Ken French. "We don't have a star system. (Junior forward) Turrell (Morris) leads us in scoring and rebounding, but he was foul trouble tonight and we showed we can still play well. I'm proud of the way they responded."
   Houghton, a former America Mideast Conference rival of the RedStorm, fell to 4-6 with a second straight loss.
   Rio Grande raced to a 7-0 lead just over two minutes into the game, but the Highlanders reeled off eight straight points of their own to erase the early deficit.
   Houghton led 14-12 following a Chris Confair three-pointer with 14:06 left in the first half, but the RedStorm tied the game 20 seconds later on a layup by Gunnell and a runner by sophomore guard Jermaine Warmack (Orange, NJ) with 13:25 remaining gave Rio a lead it would never relinquish.
   The buckets by Gunnell and Warmack kick-started an 11-0 run by the RedStorm.
   The Highlanders did close to within two, 31-29, following a jumper by Confair with 4:21 still to play before the intermission, but Rio Grande scored of the final nine points in the half to enjoy a 38-31 lead at the break.
   Houghton got no closer the rest of the night.
   A 13-5 run by the RedStorm to open the second half - of which six points belonged to Cubbie - pushed the lead to 15 points, 51-36, with 15:39 left to play.
   Michael Munoz's jumper with 12:02 remaining sliced the Rio lead to 55-43 with 12:02 remaining, but the RedStorm silenced any thoughts of a comeback bid by the visitors with a 19-4 run over the next 8-1/2 minutes which produced the largest lead of the night, 74-47, following a pair of free throws by Haynes.
   "We were a little over-aggressive defensively early - we had some guys who weren't locked in - but we made some substitutions and our rotations got a lot better," French said. "We did some things defensively tonight that we haven't been able to do all year and we had a bunch of different guys step up and play well offensively."
   Rio Grande, which had all nine players score at least four points, shot 50 percent from the field (16-for-32) and 80 percent from the free throw line (12-for-15) in the second half.
   "We didn't take bad shots," French said. "We when do that, and when we convert on our free throws like we did in the second half tonight, we're extremely hard to guard."
   In addition to the four double-figure scorers, the RedStorm also got a team-best four steals and six rebounds off the bench from senior guard Darriel Hunter (Indianapolis, IN) and four assists from Warmack. Sophomore center Makka Garba (Midlothian, VA) also had six rebounds in the winning effort.
   Houghton, which hurt its own cause with a season-high 25 turnovers, was led by Confair and Munoz, who scored 13 points each. Munoz also snared a game-high 10 rebounds.
   Rio Grande will return to action on Thursday, Jan. 5, when it resumes the Mid-South Conference portion of its schedule by hosting the University of the Cumberlands. Tip time is scheduled for approximately 8 p.m. following the women's game between the two schools at 6 p.m.