ALAMOSA, Colo. - The Adams State Men's Basketball team falls to UT Permian Basin in their first official game of the 2018-2019 season on Friday night. The Grizzlies played a well fought game, falling short 101-98.
The first half started from the free throw line, UTPB scored their first pair of free throws 32 seconds into the game. The Grizzlies answered with one bucket from the line at 18:52. The half really got started after a big dunk from
Shemar Johnson, pushing the Grizzlies on a 9-0 run. This gave them an 8-6 lead with 15:59 remaining in the half.
In the first 20 minutes of play, they were tied five times and the lead changed six times. The Grizzlies largest lead in the first half was by four points. After going back and forth, Adams State regained their lead 15-11 with 12:38 on the clock.
After a Falcon 22-10 run, UTPB led 36-28 with 5:32 left. The Falcons controlled the rest of the half, having their largest lead 45-35 with 2:53 remaining. The Grizzlies battled, cutting the Falcon lead to six at the half, 50-44.
Adams State came out big in the second half.
Shemar Johnson kicked it off with his second dunk of the night in the first 18 seconds in the half. After a quick layup by Falcons Adam Rivera,
Davere Creighton answered with a big three, cutting the Falcon lead 52-49. Hitting another three by Creighton and a layup by
Szymon Walczak, the Grizzlies tied the game 54-54 with 17:34 remaining in the game.
The Grizzlies went on an 8-4 run with a few solid layups from
RJ Brown and
John Dewey putting the Adams State up 60-56. Both teams continued to trade shots. The Grizzlies gained a five-point lead, 71-66 with 12:00 minutes on the clock. The Grizzlies and Falcons continued to battle, only changing the leader four times in the second half. With 8:17 left, Walton Maurice hit a long jumper for the Falcons, giving them their largest lead of the second half 81-75. From a huge defensive rebound by
Shemar Johnson,
John Dewey of the Grizzlies, finished a fastbreak layup, which put Adams State trailing by two, 94-92 with 3:20 left in the game.
Dewey scored the tying points from the free throw line with 2:43 left on the clock. The Falcons responded with a pair of free throws at 2:31. Dewey found
Rickey Norris in the paint to tie the game 96-96, 17 second later. After a layup by Falcon, Maurice Walton, Dewey found the net again from the free throw line with 1:45 left in the game.
The Falcons took a two-point lead with 31 seconds on the clock, from a pair of free throws. UTPB maintained their lead for the remainder of the game, only adding one more bucket from a free throw.
Though the Grizzlies outscored the Falcons 54-51 in the second half, they fell short in the end. The Grizzlies had five people scoring double-figures tonight.
Davere Creighton was the leading scorer for Adams State, with 22 points, six rebounds, and two assists.
John Dewey finished with 19 points, 10 coming from the free throw line. Dewey also had nine assists on the night.
Szymon Walczak put up 16 points with two assists.
Rickey Norris came down with four rebounds and 11 points. Justin Augumon finished the night with 10 points.
As a team, Adams State finished 34-66 from the floor, shooting a 51.5% field goal average. Together, both teams put up 51 fouls on the night. The Grizzlies shot 23-30 from the line. The Falcons shot 26-35. The Grizzlies also beat the Falcons on the fast break, scoring 12-4.
Adam Rivera and Kyree Elder were UTPB leading scorers, both putting up 17 points. Rivera was 6-6 from the line, and Elder was 5-7. Elder helped his team with six assists, while Rivera came down with 9 rebounds.
The Grizzlies will be back out on the court Saturday Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. They will face No. 4 West Texas A&M.
