Saint Mary men's basketball traveled to play in the Chris Tucker Classic at Missouri Southern State this weekend for two exhibition contests against NCAA Division II opponents. On Friday, the Spires fell to Missouri Southern State 93-83 but Saint Mary came away with the upset of Lincoln on Saturday 78-74.
In the win over Lincoln, Jordan Thomas was electric for the Spires scoring 39 points and making eight three pointers. He shot nine for 18 from the field in all and 13 for 16 from the free throw line. It's the highest point total for Thomas on the season. He also finished with four rebounds, three steals and two assists. Brice Plein scored nine points for the Spires and Marcus Mondaine had seven points and five rebounds. Lee Griffin chipped in with six points. Head Coach Jon Bishop was pleased with his team's performance. "We finally put two halves together and came out with a great win against another NCAA D-II opponent. Playing without Greenberg gave us a chance to see how other guys reacted in the fire so to speak and I thought they passed the test."
Saint Mary would trail 2-0 in the opening minutes of the game, but would claim the lead at the 18:03 mark with Thomas' first three. They would not trail again in the first half and take a five point lead into halftime. The Spires would lose the lead at the 16:21 mark of the second half and trail 41-39. Plen's three pointer with 12:54 left in the game would give Saint Mary the lead again and this time the Spires would not give it back as they built a 10 point advantage from there and held on for the 78-74 win. Bishop talked about the big win, "Jordan played great. He made big shots all game to give us a chance to pull the upset. I was proud of our team for their effort against Lincoln. To beat an NCAA team on a neutral court is something to be really proud of even if it doesn't count on our record. It's the third time we have done that (Pitt State in 2007) & (Nebraska-Omaha in 2012) and we go into those games with a mindset of if we play well we will have a chance to win in the end."
In the loss to Missouri Southern State, Grant Greenberg and Thomas led the Spires with 15 points each. Forrest Hicks had 11 points and Mondaine had nine. Andre Clark finished with eight points. Clark would also have seven assists in the game. Joey Johnson and Griffin would give Saint Mary six points each off the bench. Greenberg was injured after playing only 15 minutes in the game. Bishop talked about how his injury affected the team. "Our best player only played 15 minutes because of a hip flexor but I thought it showed how deep we were because other guys stepped up and played well in the second half."
Saint Mary would trail by 17 entering halftime before putting together a better effort in the second half to outscore the Lions 49-42. The Spires would have the lead trimmed down to four with just under a minute left in the game, but could pull no closer as they would fall 93-83 in the end. Bishop had this to say about his team's performance, "They are a top half program in the MIAA and with :53 seconds left we were at the free throw line only down four points. We make those free throws and give ourselves a chance to win the game."
