James Williams
The Paw Print
The Adams State College Grizzlies men’s basketball team lost to the New Mexico Highlands University Cowboys 91-74 at Plachy Hall on Friday night, their seventh consecutive home loss of the season.
The Cowboys scored early and often on the way to victory, led by the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s leading scorer, senior guard Roman Andrade, with 23 points. Sophmore guard Midaugas Markevicius, senior guard Rasahd Peterson, and fresman forward Kelvin Franklin all had 13 points, and senior forward Chris Dunn added a solid 10-point, 9-rebound effort.
The Grizzlies were led in the scoring column by freshman phenom Nick Fox, who had 22 points, and by sophmore guard Robby Hanzlik, who contributed 14 points. Reserve senior guard Forrest Becker had 10 points off the bench, and junior forward Kek Biel added a career-high 10 points in only 13 minutes of playing time.
In a bizarre start to the game, the Grizzlies took a 2-0 elad before any time ticked off the clock. The Cowboys were issued a technical fould during pre-game warm-ups for dunking, and Hanzlik nailed both of the ensuing free throws.
The Grizzlies came out strong, maintaining a small lead for the opening minutes of the first half, and played to an 18-16 lead with 11 minutes 24 seconds remaining in the first half. The Cowboys came back with back-to-back three pointers by Franklin and sophmore guard Ryan Gonzales to take the lead, and would not relinquish it for the rest of the game.
The Cowboys would follow those field goals with a 22-10 run to close out the first half, capitalizing on the 17 turnovers the Grizzlies committed in the first half, and a technical foul call for hanging on the rim by senior forward Eric Miller.
The Cowboys made the most of the Grizzlies’ mistakes, scoring 17 points off of turnovers to help them take a controlling 44-30 lead at the break.
The second half opened with more hot shooting from the Cowboys, as Markevicius helped extend the halftime lead to 21 points on a three-pointer in the opening minutes.
Turnovers and inconsistent defense marred the Grizzlies the rest of the way, as they weren’t able to chip the Cowboys’ lead to anything less than 14 points.
In all, the Grizzlies committed 26 turnovers that led to 30 points for the Cowboys.
Defensively, the Grizzlies struggled as much as they have all season long, allowing the Cowboys to shoot 48.4 percent from the field for the game.
In addition, the Cowboys took advantage of their opportunities from the free throw line, knocking down 25 of 31 attempts for a conversion rate of 80.6 percent, about five percent higher than their RMAC-leading average on the season.
With their second consecutive victory, the Cowboys improved to 11-7 overall and evened their record in conference play at 5-5.
On the other end, the Grizzlies dropped their sixth straight game to fall to 4-14 on the season with a 1-9 mark in conference play.
What’s Been Said…