Sports
RedStorm Defeat Shawnee State Despite Poor Shooting
By: Justin Holbrock
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Poor shooting did not stop the Rio Grande RedStorm (16-7, 9-3) from picking up their second win this season over the Shawnee State Bears (8-15, 2-10) on Saturday afternoon at Waller Gymnasium. Despite being outrebounded and outshot, the RedStorm pulled off the 73-63 road victory against the last-place Bears.
The RedStorm entered this contest with no games the entire week after defeating Cumberlands 99-96 in overtime on Feb 1.
Sloppy play and turnovers plagued Saturday’s game as the RedStorm slowly eased back into the Mid-South Conference grind. It wasn’t pretty as they shot 35.8 percent from the field and went just 5 of 21 from beyond the arc.
Not only were the RedStorm outshot from the field but they also missed an uncharacteristic 13 free throws. Before the game, they ranked second in Division I of the NAIA in free throw percentage at 76.1 percent, which will take a hit after Saturday’s game.
If there ever was a good night to struggle in nearly all aspects of a game it was Saturday against the statistically worst team in the league. The Bears outrebounded Rio 52-39 and also had four more assists than the RedStorm.
It wasn’t all bad for Rio Grande because it picked up the road victory in the tough MSC in which there are three teams, including the RedStorm, ranked in the Top 25.
Junior forward Josh Reagan was another highlight for the RedStorm, as he dropped a game-high 22 points, shooting an impressive 50 percent from the field. Reagan also corralled in a team-high eight rebounds while sophomore standout D.D. Joiner struggled with zero points, turning the ball over a game-high six times. The former MSC Freshman of the Year battled with foul trouble the entire game playing less than 17 minutes.
Rio Grande only beat the Bears in two aspects of the game including steals, but most importantly for the RedStorm, more points at the end of the game.
The matchup against the Bears marked Rio’s first of three away games, its longest road stretch of the 2013-14 season. The nationally ranked RedStorm head to Campbellsville Thursday night to take on the Tigers, hoping to remain unbeaten in the month of February.