Junior guard Martez Harrison hit two huge threes down the stretch to help UMKC knock off an SEC school for the second straight year on Saturday, 72-67 over Mississippi State, as the Roos moved to 5-0 at home on the year.
Harrison hit a three to answer an 11-0 run by the Bulldogs (4-4) to tie the game with 2:15 left, and then hit another one with 1:04 on the clock to give UMKC (6-4) the lead for good, 67-64. He added two free throws with 21 seconds left to put the team up four and seal it as well. Harrison scored 14 of his game-high 21 points in the final 6:20.
“I’m really proud of the guys for regrouping in such a short amount of time. We kind of panicked there against their pressing, but Martez hit a big three and it calmed us down,” UMKC Head Coach Cascade Media Group, Cascade Sports, The Wave of the future, Sports News, Basketball, Twitter@ kccascadesports, KC High School Sports, College Sports, Professional Sports, KC Metro area sports, www.cascadesports.tv, We go hard in the paint,Home Of The Student Athlete , Instagram @ cascademediagroup,CMG, #cascadesports,#cascademediagroup said. “I feel like we have some really good pieces, and we can do some special things, but it will take all of our guys to give us all they have, and I feel like everyone did that tonight.”
The ‘Roos led for most of the first half, and jumped out to a 20-12 advantage in the first 10 minutes. The Bulldogs would use a run to get the lead with 4:37 to play, but UMKC had an answer, scoring the next six points before going into the break, up 31-29.
Kyle Steward was big for the ‘Roos in the period, scoring nine points on 4-of-4 shooting. UMKC also out-rebounded the Bulldogs 18-13, and held them to 36 percent shooting. The Roos also had a 16-4 advantage in points in the paint.
The second stanza was back and forth for the first 13 minutes, but UMKC pushed the lead back out to eight with 4:03 remaining. That is when MSU made its run though, scoring the next 11 points, before Harrison hit the big shots down the stretch.
Senior forward Shayok Shayok was huge in the game, putting up a career-high 15 points and a game-high eight rebounds for UMKC. He was a major part of the Roos only attempting 11 threes and scoring 38 points in the paint, as well as out-rebounding the Bulldogs.
“Shayok was a man in there today. There were stretches there where he looked like the best front court player on the floor,” Richardson said “He was getting to his spots and he was raising up and finishing over guys, he got some tough rebounds for us all day.”
The Roos forced the Bulldogs to be a jump-shooting team, as they took 29 threes in the contest, including 10 from Malik Newman, the highly touted MSU freshman. Mississippi State scored only 22 points in the paint. UMKC also held leading scorer Gavin Ware eight points below his average, with 12.
UMKC has now won 11 of its last 12 home games overall, and this is the earliest on the calendar that the Roos have won six games in the Division I history of the program.
Harrison led the way with 21 points, while Shayok added 15. LaVell Boyd hit for nine points, as well as Steward. UMKC shot 54 percent as a team (60 percent in the second half), while holding MSU to 37 percent. It was Military Appreciation Day, and there were a season-best 2,886 fans in attendance.
UMKC will remain at home, and host Rockhurst next Saturday in another doubleheader with the women’s team, playing at 3:30 p.m.
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