By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The Missouri Western women's basketball team started off by hitting six of their first seven three-point attempts, and that was really just for starters.
The Griffons (24-5, 18-3 MIAA) led 55-23 at halftime and rolled the rest of the way in a 97-49 dismantling of Newman on Wednesday at the Missouri Western Fieldhouse.
Fourteen Griffons played, 12 of them scored and six of them finished with 10 or more points.
"Really great win and I think we have so many people playing really well right now," Missouri Western coach Candi Whitaker said. "It's a great time. This is what you want to see. Everyone who came in made a play."
Freshman Cleao Murray was the leader of the pack with a career-high 20 points on a career-high six made three-pointers.
"Obviously, you need to be playing your best right now," Murray said. "It's a big confidence booster for us to be heading into the postseason with such a good game."
Missouri Western shared the ball extremely well, doling out 27 assists and scoring 59 bench points. The Griffons shot 54.3 percent from the field, including 13-of-27 from three.
Johnni Gonzalez scored 11 points, while Trinity Knapp, Jordan Cunningham, Abby Bala and Alyssa Bonilla each finished with 10. Camille Evans had six points to go with a team-best six rebounds.
"Alyssa played really well," Whitaker noted. "Jordan played well. I mean, I just thought everyone played well."
The Griffons were equally impressive on defense, scoring 35 points off of 23 Newman turnovers. The Jets (9-17, 6-15 MIAA) shot just 30.5 percent from the field, including 6-of-25 from three.
Wednesday's win marks the largest margin of victory this season for Missouri Western. It's their sixth straight win, and they've now won 17 of their last 18 games. The Griffons now set their sites on the regular season finale against Pittsburg State (20-6) on Saturday in St. Joseph.
"I think practice is really important," Murray said. "The next two days for sure will be focused and we'll follow the game plan that coach (Whitaker) has ready for us."
Griffon men drop close contest to Newman playing without Eames
The Missouri Western men's basketball team trailed by as many as nine points in the first half, led by four early in the second, but saw that lead slip away, as the Griffons fell to Newman 70-66 at the MWSU Fieldhouse Wednesday.
Newman (9-18, 5-16 MIAA) held a lead for nearly 33 minutes, and the Jets were an impressive 23-of-28 at the free throw line.
The Griffons (11-15, 7-13 MIAA) were without starting forward Will Eames Wednesday due to illness. Missouri Western overcame early adversity, however, and only trailed 34-32 at halftime.
The Griffons opened the second half on a 7-1 run to go up 39-35 with 17:40 remaining, but the Jets managed to tie the game at 41-41 less than three minutes later.
Wednesday's game featured six ties and four lead changes, but Newman never trailed in the final 14:52 of the game.
Missouri Western got down 65-57 with 2:37 to go, but rallied late and tied the game at 66-66 with 27 seconds remaining after a layup from Ethan Kilgore.
The Jets ran some time off the clock, as Stevie Strong got into the lane and put up a running floater to give Newman a 68-66 lead with less than three seconds left.
Missouri Western tried to inbound the ball quickly, but a bad pass to Kilgore went out of bounds, and Newman sank a couple more free throws with 1.2 seconds left to go up four points.
JaRon Thames led Missouri Western with 20 points and seven rebounds. Taye Fields had 15 points and seven boards. Julius Dixon logged 12 points, while Kilgore came off the bench for a season-high eight points and seven rebounds.
The Griffons shot 41.3 percent from the field, but were only 4-of-24 from three.
"Instead of moving the ball to 2-3 sides and getting the right shot, I feel like we settled," Missouri Western coach Will Martin said.
Strong led Newman with 23 points on 11-of-15 shooting at the free throw line. Latik Murphy finished with 13 points.
Wednesday's loss amplifies the importance of Missouri Western's final two games.
The Griffons, in all likelihood, have to win their final two contests on the regular season schedule to absolutely insure a spot in the MIAA tournament. They're now in a three-way tie with Central Missouri and Northeastern State for the 10th and final spot in the tournament.
"I told the guys that you have to wash it quick," Martin said of the loss. "We don't have time to do a teach tape on this. The guys, the staff, we have to move on to Kearney and we're still playing for a lot. So, it's tough in games like this, because you have zero time to marinate it."
The Missouri Western men are back home Thursday to play Nebraska-Kearney in a makeup game. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. Coverage starts at 6 p.m. on KFEQ Radio (680, 95.3, 680kfeq.com).
You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.