Nationally-Ranked ‘Chos Get Hot Late to Break Open Close Game
Kearney, Neb. – The No. 4th/6th-ranked Central Oklahoma Bronchos closed on a 25-4 run to pull away from Nebraska Kearney, 81-55, Thursday night in Edmond.
The ‘Chos (20-2, 14-2) bounce back from a loss last Saturday at Missouri Southern while the Lopers (4-17, 2-12) are still searching for its first-ever win in Edmond, falling in all 11 tries.
“They are a good team but I felt like we played like a good team for much of the first half. Five-point swing hurt us right before the break,” said UNK head coach Kevin Lofton on the KRVN Radio post-game show. “We went in down nine but we came back to cut it to four at a certain point in the second half.”
Slowing the pace down and once again getting big efforts from Utah super senior Darrian Nebeker (16 points, two assists, two blocks) and Colorado sophomore Sean Evans (14 points, four rebounds), UNK hung around for 30 minutes. Despite foul trouble up and down the lineup, the Lopers made it a 56-51 game after Colorado sophomore Tom Connelly found Evans for layup with 11:14 to play.
However, the ‘Chos then made its biggest move of the night, scoring 25 of the game’s final 29 points. A balanced attack featured five double figures scorers, led by sophomore guard Jaden Wells (20) and 6-6 senior wing Camryn Givens (18). They combined to go 14 of 24 from the field and grabbed nine boards.
“We battled and put ourselves right there but then they spurted. We were getting looks that we wanted … around the rim, open 15 and 18 footers. But just couldn’t get anything to go,” said Lofton.
UCO made half its shots (29 of 58), was plus seven on the glass and tallied 21 points off 16 Loper miscues. UNK shot 42% but made only two of its last 11 attempts.
“You can’t have turnovers against a team like this if you’re going to upset them. That’s what we were setting our mind to do,” said Lofton. “We just didn’t want to play them close, we wanted to upset them. When you’re down four (51-47) in the second half you’re in the neighborhood but we just didn’t have enough.”
Nebeker went over 900 career points as a Loper by making 5 of 12 shots (1 of 3 threes). Evans (6 of 12) had similar numbers with Connelly grabbing a team-best nine rebounds. He also went 3 of 6 from behind the arc. Finally, Wahoo senior forward Winston Cook worked around four fouls to provide 11 points and six boards off the bench.
UNK heads to Wichita on Saturday evening to face Newman. The Jets ()
Comments