February 17, 2008

Men's Basketball Gets Big Wins at Christian

Lopers 18th Straight Win Over Cougars

      Kearney, Neb. – All five starters for the Nebraska-Kearney men’s basketball team scored in double figures to help the Lopers record a big win over Colorado Christian, 75-68, Saturday night in Lakewood, Colo.

     UNK (13-12, 11-6 RMAC) stops a two-game losing streak and beats the Cougars (16-9, 13-4 RMAC) for the 18^th straight time, dating back to early in the 1999-00 season.

     The win also helps UNK stay in the running for an RMAC Tournament home game. Fort Lewis (15-2) and CCU pretty much have the first two seeds locked up with the Lopers, Adams State (11-6), Metro State (10-7) and Western New Mexico (10-7) battling for the third and fourth seeds.  Each of these squads had two RMAC regular season games remaining.

      Once again, UNK found them selves in a tight game as it was 53 all with 9:36 to play. Up to this point, the Lopers had led most of the way. UNK made sure it wouldn’t have to wait until the closing minutes to win as a 13-2 run opened up a double digit lead that Christian never really cut into.

      The key spurt included two threes from freshman Jeremy Cruise (St. Edward) and back-to-back buckets by sophomore center Josiah Parker (Lincoln).  Sophomore Jeff Martin (Bellevue West) sealed the deal with two made free throws at the 26 second mark, making it a 74-68 Lopers.

      In a very even game, UNK had advantages in made free throws (17-9) and points off turnovers (19-12).

     Cruise once again was a thorn in the side of CCU as he scored a team-high 19 points on 7 of 10 (3 of 5 threes) shooting. In the Lopers 71-67 win over Christian on January 31st, Cruise had a season-best 22 points.

     Martin netted 16 points on 5 of 11 shooting with sophomore Drake Beranek (Ravenna) at 12 points and seven rebounds. Finally, Parker had 10, as did freshman guard Garret Lever (Phoenix).

     Finally, Arizona freshman Justin McCullough (eight points, three rebounds, 19 minutes) had his second straight big game off the bench. 

     For Christian, RMAC Player of the Year candidate Brian Stamer had 26 points and 12 rebounds with guard Rory Morgan supplying 19 points and three assists.

    UNK hosts Regis and Colorado Springs next weekend.