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Men’s basketball traveled to Jefferson City to take on Lincoln University on Sat. Feb. 5, and then to Warrensburg to take on the University of Central Missouri on Mon. Feb. 7. The Gorillas dropped the game to the Blue Tigers 87-98, and then won against the Mules after holding off their comeback bid 71-68.
On Saturday, the Gorillas couldn’t hold up against the Blue Tigers, and went into halftime only down by two points- 39-41. They unfortunately were not able to make a strong comeback after Lincoln had a great half shooting wise, scoring multiple three pointers all half.
“It was a disappointing loss, I felt that we shouldn’t have let that happen,” said freshman forward Cameron Huefner. “We beat them (Lincoln) earlier this season at home, and felt that we should have been able to do it again.”
A few Gorillas were able to get numbers on the board despite the loss. Senior forward Zach Burch finished with 13 points and six rebounds, Huefner with 22 points, three rebounds, and one assist, and graduate student Ryan Pippins with 12 points, five rebounds, and three assists.
Despite taking a loss on Saturday, the team continued on to take on the Mules on Monday. They were able to come out with a win, after losing to Central Missouri earlier in the season.
“It felt great to go into Central Missouri’s home court and come out with the win, as they previously had beat us at home and it was great to do the same to them,” Huefner said.
The Gorillas came in with a strong scoring start and went into the locker room up 34-26 at halftime. They continued this streak into the second half. The Mules battled back and tied the game up multiple times. This fight was not enough as the Gorillas held off the Mules taking a lead and held on until the last second of the game taking the win by 3 points.
Two players were able to get into the double digits on points that really helped contribute to the win. Huefner finished with 17 points and four rebounds, and redshirt sophomore guard R.J. Lawrence finished with 20 points, two rebounds, and one assist.
“A big highlight against UCM I would have to say would be the way we all played together as a team… we stayed together and were able to keep fighting the whole time to pull off the win,” Huefner said.
They will host Missouri Western University on Sat. Feb. 12 and are hoping to pull out the win as well and hopefully get a winning streak going.