Men's Basketball Drops 73-70 Contest To Missouri Valley
HILLSBORO, KAN. – Another Warrior lead slipped away in the final minutes of the game as Missouri Valley complete the comeback to hand Sterling the 73-70 loss.
It was a fast paced game between Missouri Valley and Sterling for their final game of the Tabor Holday Classic. MVC was able to break away with 10:08 left in the half to take a 22-18 lead over the Warriors. Sterling countered with their own seven point run capped by a Maurice Williams (JR/Fayetteville, Ga.) two-point putback, 25-22. Both teams exchanged the lead three more times in the final minutes of the half before the Vikings kept the Warriors off the board to retake the lead one more time in the half to a 33-31 lead.
The second half started sluggish for the Warriors with allowed Missouri Valley to go on a 10-0 run toe extend their lead 43-31. The Warriors were finally able to get out of their scoring rut on an 11-2 run to put themselves back ahead on a Grant Speer (JR/Mattoon, Ill.) basket for a 51-50 advantage with 8:55 to go. The Vikings fought back, scoring nine unanswered point to take regain the lead, 62-60, with 3:13 left in the game.
The Warriors clawed their way back into the game with a four-point play by Brandon Givens (SR/Buhler, Kan.) for a 66-62 lead with just over two minutes to go. Sterling was poised to take the game to split the weekend classic but the Vikings finished out the game the same way they did to end the first half by holding the Warriors scoreless the rest of the game to come back and defeat the Warriors 73-70 on a 8-0 run to end the game.
Brandon Givens led the team with 19 points, Maurice Williams was second on the team with 17 points. Rolando Gardner (SR/Oklahoma City, Okla.) added 13 points in the loss. Fayola Oyatayo (JR/Princeton, Texas) led with seven rebounds, all defensive, with Williams finishing second with six.
Sterling (6-10, 4-4) start back up with KCAC play against Oklahoma Wesleyan in Sterling on Thursday at 8:00pm.
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