January 30, 2010

UCM Pulls Away for 75-62 Victory over PSU

By David Boyce

WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- In a physical game that saw a technical foul, a flagrant technical foul, an ejection and the loss of Pittsburg State guard DePrice Taylor to an ankle injury, Central Missouri had the help of some non-contact shots to win.

Central Missouri sophomore Taylor Hanson came off the bench and drained five three-pointers, lifting the Jennies to a 75-62 victory Saturday afternoon at the Multipurpose Building.

"After coming off a tough, tough loss at Missouri Southern I loved the way our kids responded," Central Missouri coach Dave Slifer said.

The much-needed win lifted Central Missouri to 11-9 overall and 7-6 in the MIAA. Pittsburg State dropped to 10-10 and 8-5.

"This was awesome because it was our first win against a team that was above us in the MIAA," said Hanson, who finished with 15 points. "It was a good team win."

For most of the game very little separated the two teams. Every time Maya Onikute or Taylor made a basket for the Gorillas, Rebecca Roberts or Hanson had an answer for Central Missouri.

There were four lead changes in the first half. Central Missouri went into halftime with a slim 36-33 lead.

The first 10 minutes of the second half were just as close. And then Taylor went down with an injury with Pittsburg State trailing by two points.

With Taylor out, the Gorillas never had the same rhythm. A couple of minutes later the energy of the game produced the technical calls.

Pittsburg State lost another player to an ejection because of a flagrant foul.

But what really hurt the Gorillas were a couple of timely bombs from Hanson.

Whenever Pittsburg State clogged up the inside, Hanson floated outside a couple of times and nailed three-pointers well beyond the arc.

One damaging trey against the Gorillas came with about 9:48 left and Central Missouri clinging to a 54-52 lead. Hanson was at least five feet beyond the arc. Her basket gave the Jennies a 57-52 lead.

"Her shots were huge," Slifer said. "She was able to give us some separation by making threes.

"She had no conscious whatsoever. She doesn't care if she missed eight in a row, she is going to shoot it. It's not going to be right on the three-point line. It's going to be six feet behind it."

A little later with Central Missouri up 63-58, Hanson hit another three-pointer that gave the Jennies a commanding 66-58 advantage.

"I think the three-pointers were pretty important because their big girls were pretty strong," Hanson said. "We were kicking it in and out."

Hanson, who came in averaging 5.1 points, said this was the best she shot the ball in a while.

"I was kind of in a shooting slump," Hanson said. "It was good for me to hit some shots and good for our team to come back from a loss at Missouri Southern."

Roberts set the tone for the Jennies. From the opening tap through the second half, she raced up and down the court for layups.

Her hustle caused Pittsburg State to use four post players to slow her down, and none did as Roberts finished with 19 points.

"I thought the key to the game was Rebecca Roberts just ran and ran and ran," Slifer said. "They kept throwing post players out there and she didn't get tired. She played all 20 minutes the second half and I didn't think she was tired then."

Taylor had the same type of energy until the ankle injury took her out of the game.

When the game ended a couple of Pittsburg State players had to carry Taylor off the court and into the locker room.

It was a sad finish for Taylor, who was having a brilliant game. She ended up with a team-high 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field.

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