College men's basketball: Grizzlies in region driver's seat following 4th-straight win over SFCC

Just moments after sending Fred Wilson to the locker room for mouthing off after a technical foul, State Fair head coach Kevin Thomas was sent to the locker room himself with his second technical as the seconds ticked down on the Roadrunners’ 89-67 loss to Missouri State University-West Plains.

Eliciting the biggest cheer of the night from the fans, who watched in shock as State Fair was dealt a humbling loss to the Grizzlies on Wednesday night at the Davis Multipurpose Center, Thomas was beside himself.

He let his frustrations be known to the officials, who minutes earlier T’d up the second-year head coach for arguing an offensive goaltending non-call that seemed cut and dried.

The first technical came after a missed layup by the Grizzlies (15-7, 3-0 Region 16), who, including last year’s 87-68 win in the Region 16 championship game, defeated the Roadrunners (12-8, 2-1) for the fourth consecutive time.

Gage Wooten followed the miss with what looked to be an easy slam dunk, but his point-blank effort caught the back of the rim and caromed high above the basket. With Nelson still hanging on the rim, the ball went through the hoop and was counted good.

Thomas argued to no avail, was T’d up and the Grizzlies  converted the free throws to cap off a pivotal four-point possession and make it a 64-50 game around the eight-minute mark.

But while it was a key moment, the Roadrunners didn’t show much fight down the stretch as they capped off a punchless night on offense.

Failing to top 70 points for the first time since its 60-56 win over Marshalltown on Nov. 26, the most efficient free-throw shooting team in the country shot just 66 percent from the charity stripe, made just 36 percent of itsoverall looks and was held for the first time all year without a 3-pointer in an 0-for-10 effort from beyond the arc.

Kenny Chery was the lone bright with 20 points for the Roadrunners, who also got 10 points each from Wilson and Alfonzo Houston.

“We didn’t compete at all,” said Thomas, whose team only trailed 36-30 after the Grizzlies’ Joe Northington beat the first-half buzzer with a 3-pointer. “Our guys showed up tonight thinking they were just going to be able to sleepwalk through this game and we got exactly what we deserved. We didn’t play with any effort or any passion. Guys didn’t play together and there was no teamwork out there.”

It was a surprising effort from a squad that had won 10 of 11 after starting out the year 2-6. And at 2-0 in Region 16 play tied with MSU-West Plains atop the standings, the win would have put SFCC in the driver’s seat for the regular-season title and the coveted No. 1 seed in the region tournament.

Instead, the Grizzlies, winners of eight straight overall, carry that distinction.

“Give West Plains credit,” Thomas said. “They played hard, they played well, they ran their stuff and they executed. That was the difference in the ballgame. They executed and we didn’t.”

Highlighted by an 18-for-31 second-half effort, the Grizzlies shot 50 percent from the floor and converted 8 of 16 from 3-point land. Wooten was the main offensive force, shooting 11 of 17 from the fall for a team-high 27 points.

The one area where the Grizzlies lacked, strangely enough, was at the foul line, where they amassed just 19 foul shots (converting on 13 of them) compared to State Fair’s 32.

And six of those opportunities came on technical fouls for the Grizzlies, who took advantage of State Fair’s emotional self-destruction.

More troubling than Thomas’ ejection was Wilson’s technical foul in the waning minutes.

“He was over there running his mouth and continuing to run his mouth after I subbed him out,” Thomas said. “He’s going to have some consequences, so we’ll figure out what those are going to be.”

Then moments later, Thomas got the heave-ho for reasons unknown even to him.

But despite the conditions surrounding the loss, the Roadrunners have time to regroup with seven region games left.

“We got to get some things corrected and a sense of urgency because if we don’t, there’s going to be a lot more of what happened tonight,” Thomas said.