UNK Men Sneak Out Road Win At Emporia State 69-67
Senior Chase Thompson scored 21 points, graduate Allen Taylor added 20 and Nebraska Kearney was solid at the line to win at Emporia State, 69-67, Saturday night in Kansas.
The Lopers (5-8. 3-2) win a third straight league game for the first time in five years and snap a four-game losing streak to the Hornets. E-State (4-11, 1-5) will come to Buckle Court next month.
UNK didn’t trail all night and by as many as 12 points. While shooting just 35% from the field, the Lopers sunk 24 of 28 free throws, were plus four on the glass and committed nine turnovers. On the season, the Blue & Gold is now 3-5 in games decided by eight points or less.
“We got off to a pretty decent start even though we didn’t shoot it well. I thought defensively we had a great mentality,” said assistant coach Mitch Runco on the KRVN Radio post-game show. “The guys did a good job with the scout and battled in the first half. As we expected, Emporia wasn’t going to lay down and came back fighting.”
To build a 32-21 halftime cushion, the Lopers made 10 of 13 freebies and held Emporia to only 26% (8 of 31 shooting). While the Hornets shot 17 points higher in the second half, they never could get over the hump.
A three by junior guard Malik Edwards Jr. made it 48-47 with 8:51 to play. While junior guard Ja’Bryant Hill (Duncanville, Texas) followed with a driving layup, sophomore forward Dallas Bear hit another triple to tie things up. Thompson scored the next four points, and the UNK lead would get to six, but Edwards Jr. tied things at 62 on another triple with 59 seconds left. Emporia was 8 of 17 from long distance in the second half.
Taylor then went 6 of 6 at the line down the stretch with Emporia missing two freebies in the final minute and hitting a shot at the buzzer to complete the scoring.
“Those early losses have made us tougher. When we were going through those stretches, it was amazing to see the guys look at themselves in the mirror and try to figure out individually what they could do differently to help our team rather than be frustrated,” said Runco. “We knew it was going to be difficult early because no one had played together. It takes time.”
Thompson was 8 of 14 (2 of 7 threes) from the field and 3 of 4 at the line while working around four fouls. He had 23-point efforts against both York and Concordia-St. Paul. Next, Taylor made 9 of 10 shots from the charity stripe in addition to five buckets. The lefty also pulled down nine boards and five steals.
“Chase has been doing this all year for us. He’s very gifted offensively; he’s a match up problem, he shoots it really well and we try to get him the ball as much as possible,” said Runco. “I don’t think anybody played harder than Allen, both ends of the floor and particularly on defense. He also made huge free throws down the stretch.”
Finally for UNK, Hill had 13 points, three boards and three assists with the Hornets having three in double figures as well. That trio included sophomore Arhman Lewis with 18.
Northwest Missouri (4-11, 2-4) and Missouri Western (11-5, 3-3) visit the H&S Center next weekend.