Greyhounds Get Big Home Win

By Chuck Livingston
The Evening Times Sports Editor
MSCC Sports Information

Mere minutes after his team's 82-78 win over the visiting St. Louis Community College Archers, MSCC head coach Chris Parker said what everyone in attendance had to be thinking.

"That was an ugly game," said Parker.

So it was in a game that saw 46 combined fouls between the two schools.

St. Louis turned it over 30 times while MSCC (9-5 overall) gave it away 32 times. The Greyhounds hit a positively-scorching 39% of their shots in the first half when compared to the Archers' chilly 34% from the field in the same frame.

"St. Louis and us seem to pull that out of each other," Parker said. "Every game we've played against each other the past couple of years seems to be kind of a grind-it-out game."

Despite the cosmetic deficiencies in the ballgame, Parker was also quick to realize the significance of the win, which gave his team a split against St. Louis this season. The Archers won the previous meeting 85-80 in St. Louis the weekend before Thanksgiving.

"Huge win. It's always good to beat somebody who's beaten you before," Parker said after the game. "We thought we could play well enough at home to win by more, but you can't ever count out a good team. They went to the national tournament last year, and they made us earn it."

In addition to hosting the dangerous Archers, Parker's Greyhounds went into the game last night without the services of sophomore Justin Harris and freshman sensation Kaylon Tappin, the latter of which leads MSCC in scoring so far this season.

"With two starters out, we had some guys that maybe hadn't had the reps," said Parker of his team's makeshift lineup. "But we feel like we have a deep team, and it was simply an opportunity for others to get a chance to step up and get the job done."

MSCC led 35-30 at halftime, and grabbed as much as a 12-point lead in the second half, but that's when St. Louis went to a full-court press to get themselves back into the game.

That strategy worked, as the visitors forced 10 turnovers in the last 12 minutes of the game, leading to easy baskets for each team.

St. Louis got as close as four points on three different occasions in the second half, but could never quite get over the hump.

"For whatever reason, we've seen the press several times this year and always handled it well, but we didn't handle it very well today," admitted Parker of St. Louis second-half defensive adjustment. "But we'll go back and work on it and hopefully that won't happen again."

Each team's shooting heated up in the second half with MSCC hitting 14 of their 24 shots in that period while St. Louis canned 17 of their 33 attempts. St. Louis won the battle on the boards by a single rebound, 42-41.

MSCC was led in scoring by freshman Tyler Armstrong's 20 points, while Shaquille Culbreath, DeShawn McGowan and Trent Steen all hit for 10 points apiece.

The Greyhounds will cross the bridge to play Southwest Tennessee Community College on Tuesday night. It will be a doubleheader with the women tipping at 6 p.m. and the men starting at approximately 8 p.m.

MSCC will host Rhema Bible College on Thursday with tip-off scheduled for 7:30 p.m in what will be the last home game before the Christmas break.