Kangaroos pull down first road win of season

By: Dan Stroud

Posted: 1/21/08

Opening the Summit League basketball season with four straight losses was tough for the UMKC men's basketball team to swallow. A victory on Jan. 12 against Southern Utah University silenced talk about that distinction.

On Thursday night, yet another monkey was ripped from the backs of the Kangaroo players. By defeating the South Dakota State University (SDSU) Jackrabbits 64-58, the squad not only captured a second consecutive league victory, but also walked off the court with its first road win of the season and only its second in a span of 24 games.

Hitting 13 of 14 from the free-throw line in the second half, which included seven shots in eight attempts in the final minute, ultimately allowed UMKC to come away with the win. The squad shot 78.9 percent from the charity stripe for the game after a poor two of five performance in the opening stanza. The impressive improvement in free-throw shooting countered a poor performance by Kangaroo standards from the three-point arc.

UMKC hit seven treys in the contest, but the percentage at the three-point line was a paltry 29.2 percent. The Roos have become accustomed to shooting 40 percent or better from long range.

Jumping out to an 8-2 lead in the first half of action, the Jackrabbits seemed to be headed toward contributing to another long Kangaroo evening. But an 8-1 run of their own put the Roos back in the game to stay as they trailed 17-16 just inside the 10-minute mark.

Though UMKC struggled from the field in the second half, the Jackrabbits failed to find a cure for their foul habits and the Roos made them pay at the line, and on the score board.

Junior guard Dane Brumagin led all scorers with 20 points and four rebounds in the game. Senior guard Tim Blackwell, fast becoming the iron man of the squad, played for 38 of the game's 40 minutes while putting 13 on the board.

dstroud@unews.com