Red Devils snag 14th straight victory
Sunday, February 10, 2008 7:08 AM PST
By Rick McCorkle
Printable version
E-mail this articleThe Lower Columbia College men's basketball team will be spending a lot of time in next week's practices working on their free throws.
The third-ranked Red Devils struggled to make half of their 28 free-throw attempts, allowing Tacoma to hang around until the end. Despite its charity-stripe woes, LCC held on for a 74-69 victory in NWAACC Western Division men's basketball at Truman Myklebust Gym on Saturday.
"We did miss a lot of free throws because our form wasn't very good," LCC coach Jim Roffler said. "We didn't get up on our toes and it looked like we were a little tight. The misses made the game a little more interesting so no one could go home early."
LCC (18-5, 11-0 league) is riding the second-longest winning streak in the conference at 14 straight. The loss dropped Tacoma to 5-15 and 3-9, and eliminates the Titans from postseason play.
"This was a huge league game. We have to win all of our home games in order to win the division title," Roffler said. "They (the Titans) couldn't lose another game if they wanted to get into the postseason. We knew it was going to be a dogfight, and we were hoping to be the bigger dog."
LCC's missed freebies, along with the second-half play of Tacoma's Emmanuel Jenkins and Chris Sprinker, were big factors in the Titans' ability to hang around until the final buzzer.
Jenkins, a quick 6-foot guard who transferred from Portland State University, scored 21 of his 27 points in the final 20 minutes and finished a point shy of his conference-leading average. Sprinker, a 6-9 freshman who transferred from Eastern Washington University, netted 11 of his 21 points in the second half.
"They have some good players, and I'm a little surprised they're only 3-9 in league," Roffler said. "They've had some injuries, but they have two Division I transfers along with good size and some athletes who are shooters."
Jenkins, who missed all four of his 3-point attempts, scored most of his points by knifing through the LCC defense and netting an array of spinning layups.
"He's lightning-quick and made some unbelievable shots that were really acrobatic," Roffler said. "I thought we did a better job defending him the first time we played. We had guys with more energy and doing a better job defensively."
The anticipated matchup of Sprinker and LCC's Alex King, two of the better post players in the division, barely materialized. King played the first six minutes of the game before going to the bench with two fouls. He was flagged for his third three minutes into the second half, and found himself back on the bench with his fourth foul a minute later.
King returned with 7:41 left in the game, but fouled out 3 1/2 minutes later after scoring eight points and grabbing five rebounds. During his long stretches on the bench, Roffler rotated James Gehring, Isaac Jimcoily and Michael Hallin into the post to defend Sprinker.
Hallin led the trio with 13 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots. Jimcoily netted seven points and grabbed five rebounds, and Gehring added two points and four rebounds.
The Devils led 64-53 with 3:50 remaining, but Jenkins was just getting warmed up as he hit three free throws and converted a coast-to-coast layup that cut the Titans' deficit to 64-59 a half-minute later.
"We're expecting teams to give it their all, and we have to counter that with giving our all and improving our intensity, which I think we struggled with," LCC point guard Marice Tolliver said. "It's always harder to get the second victory against the same team. We didn't think it would be this difficult, but a win is a win and we have a lot of work to do this week."
Jenkins hit a short jumper following a Tolliver free throw as Tacoma trailed 65-61 with 2:50 left, but LCC stretched its lead to 69-63 a minute later following a Hallin putback and two freebies from Josh Troyer.
LCC kept its six-point lead when Troyer hit a long jumper with 65 seconds left, but Jenkins countered with a spinning layup 15 seconds later as Tacoma trailed 71-67. Ryan Hoff made two free throws that helped the Devils' regain a six-point lead 11 seconds later, and a Sprinker layup on a drive-and-dish from Jenkins kept the Titans within four points with 33 seconds left.
Tolliver, who scored a team-high 16 points and had seven assists, put the finishing touches on the victory moments later when he stole the ball and drove three-quarters of the court for a two-handed jam.
"We've still got a ways to go," Roffler added. "It's good and bad because I'd like to see the learning curve get a little steeper. But at the same time, we're 11-0 in league and still have stuff to learn."
Troyer chipped in 12 points for the Devils.
Red Devils 74, Titans 69
TACOMA (69) - Emmanuel Jenkins 27, Chris Sprinker 20, Torey Wambold 12, Eric Pate 5, Anthony Gittens 3, R.J. Hunter 2, Taka Shimpuku 0, Steven Strohmer 0, Steven Willis 0, Bryce Phillip 0.
LOWER COLUMBIA (74) - Marice Tolliver 16, Michael Hallin 13, Josh Troyer 12, Alex King 8, Robert Edwards 7, Isaac Jimcoily 7, Elisha Moaning 5, Ryan Hoff 4, James Gehring 2.
Halftime:
LCC 34, TCC 29.
Past Month's Most Commented Stories