Basketball looks to finish strong in the GLVC

Jared Speckman- Staff Writer

2/3/12

The William Jewell College men’s basketball team obtained its second straight win last night while the women’s basketball team dropped their fourth straight in Great Lakes Valley Conference play against Maryville University.
The men defeated Missouri University of Science and Technology by a score of 65-56 at home on Saturday. That win snapped a three-game conference losing streak for the Cardinals. Three players scored in double digits for the Cardinals. Nick Larson, senior, had 18 points. Craig Mattson, junior, added 14 and Mark Mason, senior, had 13. Larson also led the team with 13 rebounds and seven assists.
“This was a good win for us. It kept us out of the bottom of our division. We came in tied with S&T for the seventh spot in our division and winning put us ahead of them. We have had trouble all year playing Saturday games after Thursday games,” Larry Holley, head men’s basketball, coach said.
The Cardinals have also been dealing with depth issues all season. Dillon Deck, first-year, was declared ineligible for this semester while Rayner Frederick, sophomore, chose to transfer after the fall semester.
Entering last night’s game the Cardinals sat at 6-11 on the season with a 3-8 conference record. In their first game against Maryville, the Cardinals could not overcome the good defense that was keying on Mason and Larson.
“They really did a good job of not letting Nick get his shots and taking away Mark’s ability to get to the basket. Most teams we play against are going to try and take away those two players in some way,” Holley said.
The men returned the favor last night in excellent fashion by dominating Maryville from beginning to end. The Cardinals held Maryville to 12 points in the first half and jumped out to a 17-point lead at the break. Jewell went on to win the game 62-41 behind big games from Larson, Mattson and Mason. Larson and Mattson each had a double-double.  Larson had 23 points with 17 rebounds while Mattson added 13 points and 10 rebounds. Mason added 17 points.
The women’s basketball team, after starting 5-2 in conference, has dropped four in a row after losing to Maryville last night 52-61.
The Lady Cardinals dropped both of their games last week. The first was on Thursday to Drury by a score of 72-66. Saturday was much of the same for the Lady Cardinals as they dropped another nail-biter to Missouri S&T, 67-63.
The Lady Cardinals had a balanced attack as four girls scored in double figures. Holly Switzer, junior, led the team with 13 points. Lauren Hall, junior, had 12 while Chelsea Meeks, sophomore, and Jesse Wheeler, sophomore, had 11 each.
“We just need to get back to doing some things better that we were doing earlier in the season,” Jill Cress, head women's basketball coach, said.
Against Maryville, Cassy Nicolay, sophomore, had 18 points and 12 rebounds. Aerial Smith, first-year, added 11 points but poor shooting in the first half doomed the Lady Cardinals. Maryville took a 42-26 lead into the half while shooting 48% compared to Jewell's 24%.
The Lady Cardinals will now look to the rest of the season to try and get back on track. Each team the ladies play the rest of the season will be a team they have already played.
“We are just going to focus on what we are doing. We will go look at film from our first games and look at some of their player’s tendencies but we’re going to try and do some things better ourselves,” Cress said.
Both teams will take on the University of Missouri-St. Louis for the final time tomorrow. Following the games will be the William Jewell basketball alumni game. The game will feature 20 former Cardinals and will start at approximately 5:30 p.m.