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Mules Basketball
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Mules come up short against Hawks
Kevin Wollbrink scored 15 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds
For the first time this season, the No. 18 University of Central Missouri Mules dropped a game, falling to the hot-shooting Rockhurst University Hawks on the road by an 83-75 margin. RU nailed 53 percent from the floor and 88 percent from the foul line to get past UCM’s 35 percent shooting and 70 percent from the charity stripe.
Central Missouri (5-1) played from behind the entire first half as the Hawks nailed 59 percent from the floor and answered every run with one big shot after another. Leading scorer Joey Deas hit for 12 points in the period while Al Smith chipped in with nine. Rockhurst led by as many as 12 before the Mules made a run late in the half, cutting it to 35-31 on a Fred Dudley three pointer. By the 1:15 mark though, Rockhurst had it back to a nine point advantage and went into the break up 40-33. It was the most points UCM had allowed in a half this year, until the second period trumped that.
UCM was led by Kevin Wollbrinck with nine points while Joe Young tallied seven in the half. The Mules struggled shooting the ball as they hit only 32 percent.
Central Missouri showed some fight in the next stanza though, chipping at a 12-point lead and getting it down to 62-60 with 4:31 left on a Young three. The Hawks answered with four points to get it back in control and actually moved the lead to eight on a John Torson dunk at the 1:35 mark, but UCM kept fighting. The Mules cut it to three on several occasions under a minute, but the Hawks won the free throw shooting contest down the stretch to seal the win.
Rockhurst hit 29-of-33 from the line in the game while UCM managed 23-of-33. The Mules actually out-rebounded the bigger Hawks and forced them into 19 turnovers but in the end UCM couldn’t hit enough shots to keep up.
Deas led four Hawks in double-figures with 24, while Young paced the Mules with 18 points. Wollbrinck finished the day with 15 points and nine boards while Skip Thomas put up 14. Young also dished out five assists and DeAndre Byrd came off the bench for a defensive spark with five steals.
