Rio men pull away, bounce Bears

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - Outside of those who follow the University of Rio Grande men's basketball program on a regular basis, the recent run of performances by senior guard Delon McCloud have gone largely unnoticed.
     But after Tuesday night's meeting with West Virginia University-Tech, it's likely that the Golden Bears would attest that the Grand Rapids, Mich. product is flat out on fire.
     McCloud scored 20 of his career-high 31 points in the second half as the RedStorm pulled away for an 80-68 victory in River States Conference play at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Rio Grande improved to 13-11 overall and 8-4 in league play with its sixth win in seven outings, while taking sole possession of second place in the RSC East Division standings after Midway suffered an upset loss at home to Kentucky Christian.
     WVU-Tech, which rallied for a two-point win over the RedStorm in their earlier meeting this season, slipped to 9-14 overall and 6-7 in the RSC with the loss.
     The Golden Bears found themselves down 39-27 after Rio senior Jaelin Johnson (Fairmont, WV) hit one of two free throws with 2:12 left in the opening half, but a 12-2 run which bridged the remainder of the period and the first 1:23 of the second stanza pulled the visitors to within 41-39.
     Rio Grande responded, though, reeling off 18 of the game's next 22 points over the next 7-1/2 minutes to open up a 16-point cushion.
     The first seven points in the run came from McCloud, who enjoyed his seventh consecutive outing with 22 or more points and his third straight with 26 or more points.
     Johnson also scored half of his game total of 14 points during the spurt.
     WVU-Tech eventually sliced the deficit down to eight points with 2:45 remaining in the contest, but would get no closer.
     Rio's winning effort also included 18 points and three assists from senior Trey Robertson, while junior Kuba Senczyszyn (Algonquin, IL) and senior Jaylin Fox (South Haven, MI) had six rebounds each.
     Johnson had a team-best three steals and freshman Brody Buchanan (Proctorville, OH) tied Robertson with three assists.
     The RedStorm shot just 64.7 percent at the foul line (11-for-17) and was outrebounded, 35-31, but made up for it by shooting 45 percent overall (29-for-64) - including 11 three-pointers - and committing just five turnovers.
     WVU-Tech shot even better, going 27-for-53 (50.9%) overall, but the Golden Bears hit just seven of 11 foul shots (63.6%) and had 16 turnovers.
     Brandon Moore had 16 points to pace Tech in the loss, while Ian Goings tossed in 14 points to go along with six rebounds.
     Jakyren Woods also had six rebounds and Jackson Tackett handed out five assists for the Bears.
     Rio Grande returns to action on Thursday night when it hosts Midway in the makeup of an earlier weather-related postponement.
     Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.