POPLAR BLUFF, MO – The Northwest Mississippi Community College men's basketball team put up a fight in their season opener against #20 Mineral Area College, but a pair of early runs in the opening quarter and a tough night shooting from beyond the three-point line put the Rangers in a hole they were never able to dig out of on Friday afternoon in the opening game of the 1st Midwest Bank Classic, hosted by Three Rivers College.
"It was a good challenge opening the season with the 20th-ranked team in the country," Head Coach Justin Mann said. "I thought we came out and played hard and had a lot of grit."
The Rangers started out cold from the field, not making their first field goal until a driving layup by Chancellor Terry got them one to fall down. They were able to capitalize on their trips to the foul line, and there were enough of those to keep the Cardinals in shouting distance.
A run after the Rangers cut the lead to 13-9 would change the dynamics of the game, with MAC building the lead to 22-9 with less than 10 minutes remaining in the opening half. Northwest buckled down on the defensive end, keeping the deficit from growing until a final surge on an 8-2 run to finish the half would put the difference at 45-27 going into the break.
The offense for Northwest remained cold in the opening minutes of the second half, seeing the lead for Mineral Area grow to 54-30. Slowly, the offense began to find a rhythm, and the Rangers began to chip into the lead after the high water mark of 25 points until a huge run for Northwest closed the gap to 11 at 68-57 with five minutes left in the game.
A timeout from the Cardinals slowed the momentum for Northwest, and the lead grew back to 15 on back-to-back trips to the free-throw line, and that would mark the trend for the rest of the game.
Mineral Area capitalized at the line, missing only a pair of free throws down the stretch while going 23-for-34 from the foul line in the game, closing out the win with an 85-73 final at the buzzer.
"Obviously we got down early after shooting only 5-for-30 in the first half, but I thought our guys continued to battle even though their offense wasn't going," Mann said. "I'm looking forward to another challenge tomorrow with Three Rivers."
The Rangers were led in the game by Chance Terry, who finished with 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the field. He also went 7-of-10 from the foul line with six rebounds and four steals.
Demetrius Duffy had 13 points with seven rebounds, and Isaiah Thomas finished with 11 points in his first collegiate game, going 6-for-8 from the foul line, to round out the starters in double figures.
Ladarrius Brown was the only other Ranger to reach double digits with 10 points off the bench, with another eight from George Zanardze, who went an efficient 4-of-5 from the field.
The Rangers only managed to shoot 31.8 percent from the field and really struggled from the three-point line, only making 4-of-31 attempts. They also lost the rebounding battle 36-45 and only had five assists as a team.
They will look for a bounce-back win on Saturday evening against the host Three Rivers College, who were dropped in their opening game of the season as well. Action is set to tip off at 7 p.m. from Poplar Bluff.
Keep up with Northwest news and updates by visiting nwccrangers.com or by following along on Ranger social media accounts.
