MOBERLY, Mo. - The Wabash Valley College Warriors opened their 2009-2010 basketball season Sunday night with an 81-75 victory over the Moberly Greyhounds.
MOBERLY, Mo. - The Wabash Valley College Warriors opened their 2009-2010 basketball season Sunday night with an 81-75 victory over the Moberly Greyhounds.
The win came at the expense of new Moberly head coach Jay Spoonhour, who guided the 2000-2001 Warriors to the NJCAA National Championship.
Wabash Valley won the game at the free throw line, dropping in 27 of 38 for 71 percent. Moberly, in contrast, lost it at the line, hitting only 14 of 37 for 37.8 percent.
"We work on that quite a bit in practice," said Dan Sparks, who now leads the Warriors. "That's something that's very important, especially late in a game."
And late in the game is where it paid off for WVC. The Warriors hit 10 of 12 free throws in the last 61 seconds to ice the win. Two of those came with 29.9 seconds left, after the Greyhounds had crept to within two points at 75-73 on Jerret Towns' three-pointer with 31 seconds to go. Desmond Holloway stepped to the line and hit two, increasing the Warriors lead to 77-73.
With 16.5 seconds to go Holloway added two more free throws for a 79-73 lead. Moberly's Latrail McCoy dropped in a two-pointer to make it a four-point game but WVC's Cornelius Chatt was fouled with one second left and he added the two free throws for the final margin.
"In spots I thought we played pretty good," said Sparks. "I was really impressed with how physical Moberly is. At the start of the game it was like a WWF match out there; lot of bodies flying around, a lot of fouls called."
"I thought we were a little intimidated at first, the first couple of minutes. After that we adjusted to it and started attacking the basket. That's what we've got to do," he added.
Moberly jumped out to an 8-1, lead but after the Warriors adjusted then went in front on Brandon Dunson's fast break three pointer. Wabash Valley built leads of as many as nine in the first half before settling in with a 35-28 lead at the break.
When the second half opened the Greyhounds came out smoking and, behind Karron Johnson, took a 38-35 lead. The Warriors battled back and tied it at 41-41 on Holloway's fast break bucket. Chatt then hit a deuce and a trey to put WVC in front, 46-41. Wabash Valley went on to lead by as many as eight in the second half, the last time with 1:01 to play on Chatt's two free throws.
"I was impressed with the way we hung in there in the second half," Sparks added. "We got off to a slow start; they went to Johnson and I think he scored six straight points on us. We called a time out and kind of adjusted things."
The Warriors hit 24 of 58 field goals overall for 41.3 percent and added six of 18 three-pointers for 33.3 percent.
Moberly was 29 of 67 overall for 43.5 percent, and three of 17 from three-point range for 17.6 percent.
BOX SCORE
Wabash Valley: Britt, 1-0-0--2; Dunson, 1-1-2--7; Chatt, 1-1-4--9; Landry, 1-0-1--3; Oxley, 0-2-2--8; Holloway, 3-0-10--16; George, 0-0-0--0; McGee, 8-0-5--21; Sanders, 3-2-1--13; Locket, 0-0-2--2; Totals, 18-6-27--81
Moberly: Boyd, 4-0-0--8; Towns, 4-2-2--16; Hickman, 0-0-0--0; K. Johnson, 9-0-6--24; T. Johnson, 2-0-0--4; Leak, 2-0-3--7; McCoy, 3-1-2--11; Sain, 0-0-0--0; Saunders, 2-0-1--5; Smith, 0-0-0--0; Totals, 26-3-14--75
