Reggie Thompson
The Paw Print
Sixth-seeded Adams State fell to conference rival Colorado School of Mines, the third seed of the Central Region, on March 12 for the third time this season in a hard-fought 62-59 loss during the first round of the 2011 NCAA Division II Basketball Tournament.
This was the first time the Grizzlies have reached the national tournament since 2007, but the team was unable to pick up its first tournament win.
The two teams shared control of the game early on. To the mid-point of the first half, Adams State was able to create a 14-7 lead, but from there, Mines strongly responded with a 19-4 run to finish the half with a 26-18 lead, with credit to the Grizzlies’ 13 first half turnovers, from which, CSM scored 17 points.
ASC head coach Louis Wilson was quoted as saying in the post-game press conference “this might be the worst [first half] we’ve played all year.”
To accompany the many negatives of the first half, there were a few positives. Adams State’s defense gave a full exerted strong defensive play by forcing Colorado Mines to shoot an unusually low field goal percentage of 25. 8 percent.
In the second half, Adams State outscored Mines 41-36, with well-known junior forward Marqus Richards leading the offensive effort with 12 points in the half (19 in the game), but Mines was able to do just enough to stay afloat. The Grizzlies were able to work around the Orediggers’ tough interior defense and get good penetration, scoring 20 points in the paint, even though, they held the sixth-best scorer in Adams State history, Seth Heinbaugh, to just 6 points in the contest. The senior forward, however, was able to contribute greatly defensively, with 10 defensive rebounds (12 total).
Late in the game, Adams State battled and got as close as two points behind, due to a few key plays by ASC leading scorer, junior guard Deray Wilson, who accounted for a three-point play with 1:04 remaining. From there, Mines’ junior forward Gordon Galloway, sophomore guard/forward Brett Green, and the RMAC Player of the Year and unanimous All-Conference selection, senior guard Sean Armstrong hit significant free throws to keep distance from the mounting Grizzlies. Wilson had one last opportunity to tie the game as time expired, as the score was then 62-59, but was unable to successfully make the desperate 3-point shot.
Upon advancing to the next round, Colorado School of Mines went on to lose to No. 2 seed Fort Lewis, in a rematch of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament in early March 2011 that also resulted in a Mines defeat.
The season was full of a few tremendous firsts for the Grizzlies, including the team’s first 20-win season and Heinbaugh reaching 1,000 career points.
“It has been a really successful year,” stated Heinbaugh, “Coach [Wilson] says all the time, if you win 20 games at the collegiate level, then it’s a really good year. Obviously, we wanted to keep playing, but all in all, it was a great way to spend my final year.”
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