February 3, 2010

Harris, UCM Men Roll to 82-64 Victory over ESU

By David Boyce

WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- Central Missouri's men's basketball team plays with a calm of knowing how to win games.

That's just the way the No. 3-ranked Mules roll.

"Part of it is we have guys back who have been there before and know that getting rattled doesn't help," Central Missouri senior Alex Moosmann said. "The new guys I think already knew that but they are really learning it as the MIAA season goes on."

The Mules were such an efficient machine in their 82-64 victory over Emporia State Wednesday evening that it's hard to believe they were behind most of the first half.

Emporia State scored the first eight points and maintained a lead when the score reached the low 20s with just over seven minutes remaining in the first half.

Throughout the slow start for the Mules, there was never finger-pointing or facial grimaces of frustration.

"I thought Emporia State started off extremely well," Central Missouri coach Kim Anderson said. "They made some shots. We made some mistakes. But they made shots.

"I didn't think we were particularly sharp. To our guys' credit, we didn't panic. We hung in there and eventually got it turned around and went on a little run."

Central Missouri simply ran its offense and fed the ball to player who was hitting shots.

On this night it was junior Ryan Harris, who came in with an 8.7 scoring average. Harris knocked down four, first-half three-pointers to give Central Missouri a 24-22 lead.

The Mules never trailed again. They went into halftime with a commanding 38-27 lead and were well on their way to improving to 20-1 overall and 13-1 in the MIAA. Emporia State fell to 9-12 and 5-9.

"Our bench came in today and really gave us some energy," Harris said. "They (Hornets) gave a good team effort. We were just a little better than them tonight."

Give the Hornets credit for playing hard throughout the first half.

Emporia State just faced a team that does everything well. The Mules play defense, take smart shots and play hard for 40 minutes.

And Wednesday night the Hornets had to deal with Harris, who was playing his best game ever at Central Missouri.

Harris finished with a career-high 28 points, nine more than his previous best.

"He's like Joe Young was last year," said Central Missouri senior Sanijay Watts. "He had a big game. He can shoot lights out. We need that off the bench, a big spark.

"I've seen him do that every day in practice. If you let him he can go for 40."

As good as Harris played, it was still a total team effort that allowed the Mules to turn the game into a one-sided affair.

Central Missouri quickly extended its halftime lead to 48-29 in less than three minutes into the second half.

The Hornets couldn't slow Harris and they had no answer for Watts, who finished with 24 points.

"We stayed together and guys trusted each other and stayed positive," Watts said. "The second half we did a better job on defense."

To reach David Boyce, contributing writer for the MIAA, e-mail dboyce@themiaa.com.