RedStorm men beat Bears, secure tourney berth

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - With its back against the wall and desparate need of at least one win in its final two River States Conference contest, the University of Rio Grande men's basketball team found a way to get it done.
     The RedStorm built a 17-point first half lead and never looked back, upending West Virginia University-Tech, 67-50, Saturday afternoon, at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Rio Grande improved to 11-15 overall and 6-10 in the RSC with the victory, snapping a five-game losing slide and recording a season sweep of the Golden Bears in the process.
     By virtue of the win - and Alice Lloyd's loss at home to Point Park - the RedStorm also secured a spot in the RSC Championship Tournament, which begins on Monday, Feb. 26.
     WVU-Tech, which has now lost each of its last four outings against Rio Grande, slipped to 17-7 overall and 10-5 in conference play.
     Rio trailed just twice - at 3-0 and 8-7 - but countered the second deficit with a 12-0 run to grab a 19-8 advantage after sophomore Trent Hundley (Mt. Orab, OH) tipped in his own miss with 12:23 left in the first half.
     The RedStorm eventually increased their advantage to 17 points, 30-13, after a layup by senior Taylor Mack (Akron, OH) with 6:09 left before the intermission, but Tech reeled off nine straight points over the next 2:18 to slice the deficit in half and closed the gap to six, 34-28, after a pair of Parker Ashton free throws with 56 second remaining before the break.
     Rio eventually settled on a 37-28 halftime edge, but began the second half on a 7-1 run to push the lead back to 15 points, 44-29, after an offensive rebound and layup by junior Khamani Smith with 17:33 left to play.
     Less than an a half-minute later, the game was delayed for 40 minutes after Tech senior guard Andrew Work suffered a head/neck injury when he landed on his head after a mid-air collision with a RedStorm defender on a drive to the basket.
     Work was on the floor for an extended period with a deep laceration to his head and, although he was able to sit himself on a stretcher, was transported to a local hospital for further treatment.
     The stoppage in play did not allow the Golden Bears to regroup, though.
     Rather, it exacerbated the situation.
     Once play resumed, Rio Grande went on a 10-3 run over the next five-plus minutes to grab what proved to be its largest advantage of the day, 54-32, after a dunk by Hundley with 12:02 remaining.
     The Golden Bears got no closer than 13 points the rest of the way and failed to score over the final 3:16 of the contest.
     Tech finished 16-for-44 overall (36.4%), 4-for-13 from distance (30.8%) and just 14-for-21 at the foul line (66.7%). The Bears were also outrebounded, 37-26.
     Rio Grande shot just over 48 percent overall (27-for-56) and 83 percent from the charity stripe (10-for-12), while also committing just six turnovers in addition to commanding edge on the glass.
     Hundley led a quartet of double-digit scorers for the RedStorm with 17 points, while Robertson had 16, senior Miki Tadic (Hilversum, The Netherlands) had 12 and Mack finished with 11.
     Smith nearly made it a quintet by netting nine points to go along with a game- and career-high 11 rebounds.
     Thomas Hailey led WVU-Tech with 14 points, while Braden Chapman had 12 and Parker pulled down a team-high six rebounds.
     Rio Grande will close out its regular season home schedule on Wednesday night when it hosts Kent State University-Tuscarawas for Senior Night.
     Game time is set for 6 p.m.