Split Outcome in two exciting Games for the Wolves

By Taylor Lewis

1/24/2011

Since the last edition of The Collegian, the Wolves have played two very exciting games.  The first was against Southwestern College. The weekend before, the Wolves lost by seven to Southwestern at their home court in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Wolves started off the Thursday night rematch well, hitting an array of shots.  The scoring streak was led by backup big man Tom Creasey, who connected on all six of his attempted three-point shots in the first half. By the end of the first half, the Wolves had a comfortable 21-point lead.

In the second half, that lead did not remain as stable.  Southwestern started to get it going on offense and slowly crawled back into the game. While Southwestern made shots from all over the court, the Wolves struggled to run their offense and turned the ball over numerous times.  Towards the end of the game, Southwestern had cut what was a twenty point lead down to single digits.  As time was ticking down, Southwestern was forced to foul the Wolves in an attempt to get back in the game. Luckily, the Wolves made their free throws and sealed off the victory.

Tristan Greenidge and Tom Creasey both led the Wolves in scoring with 18 apiece. Andrew Bailey also had a strong performance with 14 points and 7 rebounds. The most impressive stat of the night was that the Wolves shot over fifty percent from the three-point line going 13 of 24.

The second matchup of this past week would go a lot differently for the Wolves. Last Monday, the Wolves played West Coast Baptist for the second time this season. The Wolves had won a close game in Lancaster, California earlier this month and were hoping to repeat that performance.

On the first play of the game Jordan Stimmel threw a beautiful alley-oop pass to Tristan Greenidge who threw it down with two hands. After this however, the game did not continue the way the Wolves had hoped. About half way through the first half, the Wolves found themselves trailing by twenty points. Before the break, the Wolves connected on a few outside shots that cut the deficit to eleven points.

At halftime the Wolves knew that they had played a terrible half and were determined to get back into the game. Despite this, the Wolves fell further behind at the beginning of the second half. With about ten minutes left in the game, it looked like West Coast Baptist was going to run away with an easy win. However, the Wolves did not give up and began to pressure their opponents into numerous turnovers. The reenergized Wolves went on a scoring run that included a monstrous dunk by Greenidge who soared over a West Coast Baptist defender.

Down the stretch, the Wolves cut West Coast Baptist’s lead to three points, but missed a crucial three-pointer that could have tied up the game. After this, the Wolves were forced to foul. With about four seconds left, the Wolves had the ball, down by three. They passed the ball to Greenidge who was fouled immediately and went to the free throw line. Greenidge made the first and missed the second one intentionally hoping that his team could get the rebound. Sadly, the Wolves could not control it and lost to West Coast Baptist by two points.