James Williams
The Paw Print
The struggles at Plachy Hall that have plagued the Adams State College Grizzlies men’s basketball team for the last two seasons continued on Saturday night, as the visiting Colorado State University – Pueblo ThunderWolves came back from a 19-point deficit to win by the final score of 71-64.
The Grizzlies played very well from the opening tip, knocking down 11 of their first 12 shots from the field en route to building their first of two 19-point leads in the first half, their largest lead of the season in 11 conference games so far this season. The first 19-point lead came with 11:35 remaining in the half, following a layup with a shooting foul drawn by senior forward Eric Miller.
The ThunderWolves chipped away at the lead over the next seven minutes before two free throws from true freshman Nick Fox and a free throw from senior guard Xavier Lewis extended the lead back out to 19 points, and the Grizzlies leading by a score of 40-21 with 4:36 remaining in the half.
The ThunderWolves, one of the most well-balanced teams in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, proved their versatility, fighting back to get the lead down to 11 points to close the half with three small guards on the floor against a much taller lineup for the Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies shot 57.7 percent from the field in the first half, and were led in the scoring column by Fox, who had 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting. Finishing what had undoubtedly been one of the most complete halves of basketball played by the team this season, the Grizzlies carried the double-digit lead they possessed since the opening minutes of the game into the second half, leading 43-32.
The second half started the same way the first half did for the Grizzlies with solid shooting from the field. Fox hit the opening two shots of the half to go up 47-36, but the shooting from both the field and the free throw line would soon go as cold as the Alamosa weather on this particular night. The Grizzlies would only make four more field goals down the stretch while missing 11-of-17 from the charity stripe. The Grizzlies shot just 30 percent in the second half, and connected on only 3-of-15 three pointers on the evening as well.
The ThunderWolves capped off a 15-4 run with a dunk by senior forward Chris Busch with 12:27 remaining to tie the game at 51. Junior forward Seth Heinbaugh responded with a layup to put the Grizzlies up 53-51. The teams played to a deadlock for the next several minutes, resulting in a 64-all tie with 2:24 to go.
Junior guard Donell Wells gave the ThunderWolves the 66-64 lead with 1:39 to go following a layup. The Grizzlies came back by putting the ball in Heinbaugh’s hands.
Heinbaugh drew a foul on Busch, but missed both free throw attempts. Senior guard Roman Van Allen added two more free throws to extend the lead to 68-64 with 55.5 seconds remaining. The Grizzlies took nearly 30 seconds to get a shot off on their next possession, a miss from behind the arc by sophomore guard Robby Hanzlik.
Junior guard Kris Lawrie added three more free throws in the final seconds to cap the victory for the ThunderWolves.
Fox turned in one of his best efforts of the season, scoring 21 points, collecting seven rebounds, and adding four assists to go with three blocks for the Grizzlies. In all, the Grizzlies blocked nine shots in a solid defensive effort for the evening. Heinbaugh was the only other Grizzly to score in double figures, adding 11 points.
The Grizzlies fell to 4-15 overall and 1-10 in the RMAC for the season, and will attempt to snap a season-long seven game losing streak on Friday night on the road against Western State.
The ThunderWolves improved to 11-7 overall and 6-5 in the RMAC for the season.
There are only four spots out of the West Division for the RMAC Shootout in March. In all likelihood, the Grizzlies will need to win all of their remaining eight games to get in.
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