The Cowboys basketball team picked up their 20th win of the season on Monday night in the Arena-Auditorium over the University of Missouri Kansas City, 72-61.
The Kangaroo’s came out of the gates in a full court press, but UW was able to take advantage of the pressure, starting off with a 11-0 run.
“I thought we handled it well,” guard Jason McManamen said. “We were able to take advantage of the press early on and got some easy transition points.”
McManamen finished the night with 11 points, leaving him 11 shy of 1,000 for his career. It was also his 100th straight game he has made an appearance in.
UMKC was able to weather the storm and battled back to finish the first half. UW would go into halftime leading 38-32.
“That was a good opponent and they play very hard,” head coach Allen Edwards said. “They have the ability to comeback no matter how much they are down, and that’s something I talked about with the guys.”
Guard Justin James lead UW scorers in the first half with 12 points and finished with 21 total. The key to the game was holding UMKC’s leading scorer, LaVell Boyd, to only 2 points and no field goals in the first half. Boyd came into the game averaging just over 18 points a game.
“It’s always a team effort on defense, but I took it personal tonight,” guard Jeremy Lieberman said. “Coach set out to put me on him to cause havoc and make it difficult on him and I felt like I did that pretty well.”
The rest of the game would fare the same for Boyd, who would finish with only five points and one made field goal.
“I gave kudos to Jeremy (Lieberman) in the locker room because he did most of the work guarding him and making it tough on him,” Edwards said. “To hold him 1-12 from the field and five points total speaks volumes for what he was able to do.”
Lieberman was also efficient on the offensive end, dishing out seven assists on the night with only one turnover.
The Pokes came out of the locker room off to another hot start, taking a 50-37 lead thanks to two quick threes from forward Alan Herndon, who finished with 14 points.
Forward Andrew Moemeka started his second game of the season for the Pokes, grabbing six rebounds, three of which came on the offensive end.
“What Andrew does for us is that he is an athletic big man that can run and also one of our better offensive rebounders,” Edwards said. “He is mobile enough to guard the perimeter, so when others teams go with a skilled line-up, I can trust that he can stay in front of them. His energy and work ethic has really set him apart.”
The Cowboys finished the game shooting nearly 50 percent from the field while holding UMKC to 34 percent and 16 points under their season average. The win will help the Pokes continue their season and gain some postseason tournament experience.
“For the guys that are coming back this is really valuable experience to play post season basketball, “ Edwards said. “I think these types of opportunities are huge not only for our team this year, but the future of our program.”
The Cowboys are set to take on Utah Valley in the CBI semifinal Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in the AA.
