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| Yamani Ball |
Dale Martin knew coming into Thursday's game that the Miners were going to need to get the score into at least the 80s to beat a talented Wisconsin-Parkside team -- and they ended up doing a little better than that.
The Miners needed every point they could muster to win a wild 97-92 decision over the Rangers at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building to get their second victory in Great Lakes Valley Conference play. UMR shot 59.6 percent from the floor and was able to hold off UW-Parkside in the second half despite several serious runs at the Miner lead.
The Rangers had an early 12-6 lead in the contest, but the Miners bounced back and scored the next six points to tie the game. UW-Parkside regained the lead at 19-17 on a layup by Kyle Clark at the 9:59 mark, but the Miners scored the next nine points to take the lead for good.
UMR took a 10-point lead at 40-30 on a three-pointer by Tyrone Davidson with 3:02 to go in the half and took its biggest lead of the period into the locker room on a pair of free throws by Joe Shardo with 35 seconds to play.
The Miners built their lead to 14 at 58-44 on a lay-in by Shea Wiemann at the 16:18 mark, but the Rangers then rattled off 13 of the next 15 points in a span of three minutes to close to within three at 60-57.
UMR pushed its advantage back out to seven when Owain Hall made three free throws, but six straight Parkside points drew the visitors to within one. The Rangers answered UMR points with points of their own on two straight possessions, but a pair of baskets by Wiemann got the Miners a five-point lead at 78-73 with 6:36 to play.
The Rangers wouldn't go away, however, and got to within a point again at 83-82 and had a chance to take the lead, but Tyrone Deacon -- who scored 11 of his 16 points in the second half -- missed a shot in the lane. UMR countered by getting a three-pointer at the other end from Marquis Jones to go back up by four.
One more time, the Rangers trimmed the margin to one at 90-89 with 1:43 to play, but Wiemann tipped in a missed three-point shot by Justin Taylor to make it a three-point game. After Clark made one of two at the line for Parkside, Yamani Ball drilled a three-pointer to give UMR a five-point lead.
Tyrone Davidson iced the win by making two free throws with 15 seconds to play.
Ball led a five-player contingent in double figures with 25 points, while Jones had 14 including four of UMR's 14 three-point baskets. UMR also got 12 points from Davidson and 10 apiece from Wiemann, Taylor (who also had six assists) and Shardo off the bench. The Miners outscored the Rangers 26-11 from the bench in the game.
Clark led the Rangers (13-6, 4-4 GLVC) with 26 points.
UMR (7-9, 2-7 GLVC) will host Lewis Saturday in a 3 p.m. game. It will be Forum Dental Day at UMR and the Extreme Team will perform at halftime of both games of the doubleheader.
We don't need to score in the 80's to win a ball game we need to play defense. We need to make more plays to feed the ball into our inside players. The only play we know is to throw up anything behind the arc. Lets take time to set up plays and learn how to play defense and then we will win ball games. Mr. Martin needs to think about developing a defense in order to win more ball games.
I've been to every home game and a few away games as well. I think that it's absurd that Coach Martin is still the coach of the UMR basketball team. Defense wins games, smart basketball wins games. Hoisting up 3's with 30 seconds left on the shot clock does not win games. The little kids playing at halftime run more complicated plays than the UMR basketball team. The dribble weave is old and tired, I'm absolutely sick to my stomach. No plays are run towards the post. We have competent post players yet we aren't utilizing them. Against Lewis today we only made 3 3-pointers in the entire game. Yet we still hoisted up 3's like our lives depended on it.
Down by 2 at halftime, losing 20, something is really wrong.