Box Score Box and Play by Play OLATHE, Kan. - Junior forward
Jacob French scored a career-high 27 points, leading regular season champion MidAmerica Nazarene to a 82-75 victory over 5th-seeded Graceland, Friday evening in the semifinal round of the 2012 Heart of America Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament. |
Postgame Quotes
The Pioneers (24-8) will host #3-seeded Baker on Monday, March 5 in the tournament championship game. The two teams split the pair of regular season contests with the home team coming out on top in each game.
French was 10-of-15 from the field while claiming 8 rebounds, 4 blocked shots and 2 steals. The MNU starting five all scored in double figures as they accounted for all but 9 of the team's points and five of the field goal attempts.
A sluggish start by the Yellowjackets propelled the Pioneers to an early 11-4 lead as MNU forced four turnovers inside the opening five minutes. However, Garrett Grundman hit a pair of three-pointers sandwiched around two jumpers by Brad Burgus for a 10-2 run and a brief 1-point lead for the visitors.
The advantage would be the only one of the game for Graceland as MNU forced 10 turnovers in the first half and limited the Yellowjackets to 8-of-30 (.267) shooting. The lead swelled to as much as 10 points late in the first half before MNU took a 34-26 lead into intermission.
Graceland came out of the intermission the aggressor and trimmed the deficit down to two less than four minutes in after a 3-pointer by Burgus. MNU was able to claim another 10-point cushion with 7:20 to go on a 3-pointer by
Rustin Dowd, but Graceland continued to stay within striking distance as Nick Mikle had 17 of his game-high 21 points after the break.
Mikle knocked down the last two of his four 3-pointers to twice cut the deficit to four in the final two minutes, the last coming with 57.5 seconds remaining. However,
Nick Syrie knocked down all 6 of his free throws down the stretch while Dowd added two more to hold on for the victory.
Syrie set the table for his teammates all night long, dishing out 11 assists while also tallying 10 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals. It was his 4th double-digit assist game of the season and second against Graceland.
Luke Thomas recorded his league-leading 12th double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds while
Conner Langrehr had 15 points and Dowd added 10.
Mikle and Grundman combined to give the Yellowjackets 33 points off the bench. However, they were without all-HAAC guard Chris Henderson for most of the game, as he sustained an injury on Wednesday against Avila and did not play in the second half after logging 11 minutes in the opening stanza. Burgus tallied 15 points and Alex Roth tallied 12 points and 9 rebounds. Jamal Lawson had a game-high 16 rebounds while Trae Patton dished out 8 assists.
