Sunday, Feb. 07, 2010

Pioneers men nip Cards in another classic clash

Another classic chapter was added to a dwindling rivalry Saturday as the MidAmerica Nazarene men's basketball squad rallied past William Jewell for a last-second win at Bell Family in the Cook Center.

The Pioneers spotted the Cardinals a 13-0 lead off the opening tap and never led until the 7-minute, 25-second mark in the second half, but somehow pulled out a 76-74 win when freshman Rustin Dowd slipped a wrap-around pass to senior Ben Swinger, who got the defense in the air with a pump fake and then connected on the go-ahead layup with 0.8 seconds left.

“It is so much fun to play against them and it's a crying shame they are going out of our league,” MNU coach Rocky Lamar said. “We think it's a great rivalry, always has been, and coach (Larry) Holley is one of the greatest coaches I've ever coached against. It breaks my heart that he won't be in our league any longer after another year, because the atmosphere of these games is so good.”

With a rowdy and raucous crowd bellowing away, Jewell threatened to pull away in the opening minutes of both halves. Lamar was forced to burn a timeout 3:26 into the game after watching his squad sleepwalk through the initial possessions.

“We'd like to start the game off with three straight stops, so when I called the timeout (Jewell) had had the ball six times and they'd scored 13 points,” Lamar said. “You can figure that out.”

Lamar's message during the break was none too subtle.

“He wasn't in a good mood, but he told us if we didn't want to defend then he'd get people in there who would,” said Swinger, who only scored six but grabbed a game-best eight rebounds. “And he was right. We didn't play defense at the beginning, but we started buckling down after that timeout and got some stops.”

The Pioneers' first score came when Dowd laid off a pass to Swinger at the 15:59 for a layup, giving the game nice symmetry and igniting a 10-0 run. Dowd scored eight of the next 12 MNU points with senior Brenton Bell adding a couple buckets and the action settled down.

“We started the game brain dead, but we battled back and this team's got a lot of heart,” said Bell, who finished a game-high 29 points and a game-best three steals. “We're not the most-talented team, never have been, but the team plays together and plays hard.”

The Cardinals, 13-8, led 33-27 at halftime and again surged to a comfortable margin early in the second half when junior Jonathan Benson powered the visitors in front 39-30.

But MNU, 14-9, dug in its heels and racked up four and-ones in a 66-second span to close the gap once more.

Senior Mark Ball had the first bucket-and-foul, but missed the free throw. Junior Andrew Crotty got the offensive rebound, though, and senior Vince Thompkins scored an old-fashioned three-point play to cap a five-point possession.

Jewell's lead was whittled to 43-41 when Crotty completed his own three-point play and Thompkins added another.

“The guys came out the second half tough as a rock,” Bell said. “We really had a great attitude coming out of halftime and we carried it through the rest of the game.”

Still, the key sequence didn't come until just inside 10 minutes when Bell took over in his final game against the Cardinals, barring a meeting in the Heart's postseason tourney.

Bell converted his own three-point play at the 9:48 mark and made three of four free throws on subsequent possessions. Freshman Lukas Weigel rebounded the one he missed and scored inside to tie the game at 56-56 with 8:38 remaining.

Jewell went back into the lead on a pair of free throws before Bell delivered that go-ahead three with 7:25 remaining. Moments later, he got a steal barely past halfcourt and raced in for a layup only to be taken out by Nick Larson, who was whistled for a flagrant foul.

“That foul was like slow motion for a day,” Bell said. “It's a rivalry and I was just as much jumping into him. But 260 pounds versus 170? He launched me, and I've never been launched that far before.”

Nonetheless, Bell popped right up, remained in the game and converted the free throws, which further sparked the Pioneers and only intensified the final seven minutes.

“It fired us up a lot, because a lot of us felt like (Larson) didn't really make a play on the ball,” Thompkins said. “We had to be smart about it, but it got under our skin and we didn't appreciate it that much.”

Jewell tied the game twice and led only once more after that, but one of those ties came on a contested 12-footer by senior Kyle Fisher with 35 seconds remaining.

Of course, that just set the stage for Dowd to show his mettle with the game on the line as he did so often during his prep career at Olathe South.

The Pioneers ran the clock under 8 seconds before Dowd curled off a screen by Weigel, drew the Cardinals' defense in the paint and found Swinger for the game-winner.

“That one felt great,” Swinger said. “I wish I would have hit the free throws about a minute before, then it might not have mattered, but it was a crazy finish.”

Crotty intercepted Jewell's final desperation in-bounds heave to ice the victory.

“It was an awesome feeling to have everybody celebrate there at halfcourt,” Swinger said. “We needed a win, and it's especially sweet against Jewell.”

Weigel finished with 13 points and five rebounds, while Dowd wound up with 11 points and a game-high six assists.

“The rivalry is amazing, and it's always the most-hyped game and best-attended,” Thompkins said. “That makes the atmosphere amazing, but especially when you win.”

MIDAMERICA NAZARENE 76, WILLIAM JEWELL 74

William Jewell (13-8, 8-4 Heart): Jonathan Benson 5-9 5-7 15, Alex Bernskoetter 4-6 0-0 8, David Kennedy 2-5 4-4 8, Kyle Fisher 4-7 2-2 12, Nick Larson 6-14 6-8 19, Craig Mattson 2-3 2-2 7, Adam Johnston 1-2 0-0 2, Ben Wilson 1-1 0-0 3, Mahamadou Sissoko 0-1 0-1 0. Totals 25-48 19-24 74.

MidAmerica Nazarene (14-9, 8-5 Heart): Ben Swinger 3-6 0-2 6, Andrew Crotty 1-1 1-1 3, Vince Thompkins 3-9 2-2 8, Brenton Bell 7-13 13-14 29, Rustin Dowd 4-7 2-2 11, Mark Ball 2-2 0-1 4, Bryce Anderson 1-3 0-0 2, Lukas Weigel 5-8 3-6 13. Totals 26-49 21-28 76.

Halftime: WJC 33-27. Three-point goals: WJC 5-9 (Fisher 2-2, Larson 1-1, Wilson 1-1, Mattson 1-2, Kennedy 0-1, Bernskoetter 0-2), MNU 3-7 (Bell 2-3, Dowd 1-3, Thompkins 0-1). Rebounds: WJC 30 (Bernskoetter, Larson 7), MNU 24 (Swinger 8). Assists: WJC 16 (Fisher, Larson 4), MNU 11 (Dowd 6). Turnovers: WJC 15, MNU 11.

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