Philly Gym Rat (The Perry “QM” McMullin Story)

[PointGuard]

Game #25; Feb. 11, 2012; Chicago State Cougars (11-13, 5-6) at (CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (10-14, 6-5)

We edged Chicago State in their own gym 73-70 earlier this year in a game with 13 lead changes.

We jumped out to a 10 point lead early in the game, but fouls on our big men forced us to put in a small lineup and the Cougars clawed their way back to narrow our lead to 30-27 at the half. Both teams shot poorly. Andrew Powers was our leading scorer with 12 points.

We held Chicago State scoreless for 7-1/2 minutes in the second half but shot so poorly that we only were able to open a 12 point lead in that span of time. Our defense kept the Cougars at bay and we won this game handily.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-59, Chicago St-41. CSU Bakersfield season record: 11-14; Great West record: 7-5 (2nd place tie).

Scoring leaders: Powers-14, Holmes-10.

Rebound leaders: Johnson-6, Bivins-6, Powers-5, Williams-5.

Assist leaders: Bivins-4, Holmes-3.

Player of the Game: SG Andrew Powers-14 pts, 5 reb, 1 assist.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PG Carlos Holmes-10 pts, 3 reb, 3 assists.

Other notes: We limited Chicago State to 25% shooting efficiency plus forced them to make 14 turnovers. We hit 40% of our shots and made just 8 turnovers. The Cougars out-rebounded us 44-38. We had 5 more fouls called against us than the Cougars did, allowing them to take 8 more free throws that us.

[PointGuard]

Game #26; Feb. 15, 2012; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (11-14, 7-5) at Utah Valley Wolverines (7-18, 2-10)

Utah Valley has a 9-game losing streak which we hope to make 10, but all teams are dangerous when playing at home. We beat them by 27 points when they played us in Bakersfield last month.

We fell behind but tied the game at 14-14 with 11-1/2 minutes to play in the first half. From there on it the score went back-and-forth. We came away with a 32-30 lead at the buzzer. High point honors for us went to Kevin Hill with 8 points.

We went ice-cold in the 2nd half and Utah Valley got hot. End result: annihilation.

Final Score: Utah Valley-75, CSU Bakersfield-53. CSU Bakersfield season record: 11-15; Great West record: 7-6 (3rd place tie).

Scoring leaders: Hill-13,Powers-11.

Rebound leaders: Johnson-8.

Assist leaders: Bivins-4, Holmes-3.

Player of the Game: Utah Valley’s PG Todd Monroe-18 pts, 1 reb, 5 assists, 1 steal.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG Kevin Hill-13 pts, 1 reb, 1 assist.

Other notes: We hit 35%, the Wolverines hit 52% (including 9 of 18 from 3-point distance). Utah Valley had 3 players each score 18 points apiece.

[PointGuard]

Game #27; Feb. 18, 2012; TX Pan American (7-20, 5-8) at CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (11-15, 7-6)

We beat the Broncos 79-72 when we played them on their court. This is our final regular season game and we need a win to get good seeding in the conference tournament.

We held a double-digit lead through most of the half. The halftime score was 44-33 in our favor. Greg Bivins led our scoring with 10 points.

We bludgeoned them in the 2nd half and won easily.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-87, TX Pan American-69. CSU Bakersfield season record: 12-15; Great West record: 8-6 (2nd place tie).

Scoring leaders: Bivins-16, Settles-14, Johnson-12, Hill-10, Powers-9, Chase-9.

Rebound leaders: Chase-6, Settles-6, Hill-6, Bivins-5.

Assist leaders: Holmes-4.

Player of the Game: PG Greg BIvins-16 pts, 5 reb, 2 assists.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C Mike Settles-14 pts, 6 reb, 2 assists, 1 steal.

Other notes: The Broncos shot better than we did (43% to 40%) but we held a 44-33 rebounding advantage and a 13-7 turnover advantage. We also scored 14 more points from the free throw line.

[PointGuard]

New Jersey Tech...........12-2.....21-6.....RPI: 54
CSU Bakersfield...........8-6....12-15....RPI: 227
Seattle..........................8-6....13-14....RPI: 240
Houston Baptist..............7-7....13-14....RPI: 201
North Dakota.................7-7....15-12....RPI: 197
Chicago State................6-8....12-15....RPI: 285
TX Pan American............5-9.....7-21.....RPI: 336
Utah Valley...................3-11....8-19.....RPI: 308

If you remember…before the season started the sportswriters from cities in the conference picked the top 3 to be: North Dakota, New Jersey Tech, and Seattle and the cellar dweller to be CSU Bakersfield. As you can see they got 2 of the top 3 right, but we definitely exceeded expectations. New Jersey Tech certainly stood out from the rest of the conference, though.

[Wayne23]

Great season Coach. Good luck in the tourney.

[PointGuard]

Utah Valley (8-19, 3-11) vs New Jersey Tech (21-6, 12-2): Utah Valley jumped out to a 6 point lead but by halftime New Jersey Tech was ahead 45-31. New Jersey Tech expanded its lead to 20 before Utah Valley tightened things up at the end of the game. New Jersey Tech has 4 players score in double figures, led by Simon Przybilla’s 14 points. Bryan Boyce was top scorer for Utah Valley with 13 points. Final Score: New Jersey Tech-70, Utah Valley-59.

Chicago St. (12-15, 6-8) vs Seattle (13-14, 8-6): Seattle built a 17 point lead in the first half, but Chicago State trimmed the lead to 11 at the half (31-20). Chicago State continued their comeback in the 2nd half, even building an 8 point lead at one point. Seattle came back to make this a thrilling finish. Rick Wilson of Chicago State held high point honors with 17 points. B.B. Rowles had 8 for Seattle to lead their balanced scoring attack. Chicago State hit 10 of 17 threes. Final Score: Chicago St.-60, Seattle-58.

North Dakota (15-12, 7-7) vs Houston Baptist (13-14, 7-7): This was a close game throughout. North Dakota held a 35-31 halftime lead. North Dakota hit 51% of their shots. High point man for North Dakota was Bryan Harrington with 17 points. Roy Landram scored 20 for Houston Baptist. Final Score: North Dakota-67, Houston Baptist-63.

Game #28; Mar. 1, 2012; TX Pan American Broncos (7-21, 5-9) vs CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (12-15, 8-6)

The game was close in the early minutes of the first half, but we then pulled away and opened a double digit lead, finishing the half ahead 50-34. This was our best offensive output in a half this year. We hit 51% of our shots and held a 22-16 rebounding advantage. Greg Bivins set the pace with 12 points.

Our play in the 2nd half was uninspired, but we were able to hold the Broncos off and move on to the 2nd round of the tournament.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-76, TX Pan American-65. CSU Bakersfield season record: 13-15.

Scoring leaders: Hill-19, Bivins-16, Settles-11, Powers-9.

Rebound leaders: Bivins-8, Chase-6, Williams-6, Powers-6, Settles-5.

Assist leaders: Holmes-3, Johnson-3.

Player of the Game: SG/SF Kevin Hill-19 pts, 3 reb.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PG Greg Bivins-16 pts, 8 reb.

Other notes: The main difference in the game was our rebounding advantage (46-37), but we also outshot the Broncos 42% to 38%.

[Wayne23]

Yes! Round two. Great season given the expectations, keep it going!

[PointGuard]

GREAT WEST CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT—Semi-Finals


North Dakota (16-12, 7-7) vs New Jersey Tech (22-6, 12-2): North Dakota demolished New Jersey Tech in the first half. The score at halftime was 46-23 in favor of North Dakota. North Dakota then held their advantage throughout the 2nd half. North Dakota hit 48% of their shots while New Jersey knocked down just 38% of theirs. This was a 3-point shooting game…North Dakota hit 14 of 35 and New Jersey Tech hit 11 of 33…68 three-point attempts in total. Jesse Kennard scored 24 points for North Dakota. Andy Boardman matched him with 24 for New Jersey Tech. In a real upset….Final Score: North Dakota-83, New Jersey Tech-61.


Game #29; Mar. 2, 2012; Chicago State Cougars (13-15, 6-8) vs CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (13-15, 8-6)

We beat Chicago State both times we played them this year. I’m hoping we can make it three. Aquil Oliver leads the Cougars scoring with 14.7 ppg.

This was a tale of two halves of a first half. In the first portion, Chicago State controlled the pace, the boards, and the game, but held just a small lead because they shot poorly. The second half, we shot well and outplayed them building a 9 point lead, only to lose most of it in the final 2 minutes. We were able to take a 39-36 lead to the locker room, though. We hit 45% of our shots to 30% for Chicago State, but the Cougars dominated the boards 26-16. Kevin Hill had 7 points to lead our scoring.

Chicago State came out strong early in the 2nd half, but we then took control and maintained it all the way to the end. All of a sudden we have a lot of fans as we head to the championship game.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-70, Chicago State-56. CSU Bakersfield season record: 14-15.

Scoring leaders: Hill-12, Powers-10, Rivera-8.

Rebound leaders: Johnson-7, Jones-5, Hill-5.

Assist leaders: Johnson-5, Holmes-3.

Player of the Game: SG/SF Kevin Hill-12 pts, 5 reb, 1 assist, 3 blocks.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C David Johnson-4 pts, 7 reb, 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 block.

Other notes: Even though Chicago State controlled the boards 45-37, our defense shut down their shooting as they hit only 28% of the FG attempts. We popped in 43% of our shots and that was the difference in this game.

[Wayne23]

In the TITLE game. Woo hoo! NCAA? The top teams are gone, it could happen.

[PointGuard]

Game #30: Mar. 3, 2012; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (15-15, 8-6) vs North Dakota Fighting Sioux (17-12, 7-7)

While playing at home we edged North Dakota in overtime, but then lost badly to them when playing away. They’ve won 8 of their last 10 games. SG Jesse Kennard is averaging 19.1 ppg for the Fighting Sioux.

We dropped behind 9-0 by not scoring for 3-1/2 minutes while missing our first 6 shots. We came back though to take a 13-12 lead with about 12 minutes to play in the half. We eventually opened a 10 point lead, only to surrender most of it, finishing the half ahead 42-39. Andrew Powers scored 10 points to lead our offense.

We hit 5 threes in the first 3-1/2 minutes of the 2nd half as we opened a 14 point lead at that point. We continued to shoot well and were ahead 79-59 with 6 minutes to go. Our offense was simply on fire as we cruised to a big win and the conference championship.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-93, North Dakota-66. CSU Bakersfield season record: 15-15.

Scoring leaders: Bivins-20, Powers-18, Hill-15, Holmes-12, Williams-8.

Rebound leaders: Johnson-10, Hill-5.

Assist leaders: BIvins-4, Powers-4, Jones-3, Hill-3, Holmes-3.

Player of the Game: PG Greg Bivins-20 pts, 4 reb, 4 assists.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG Andrew Powers-18 pts, 4 reb, 4 assists, 1 steal.

Other notes: We not only hit 53% of our shots but we dropped in 16 of 23 three-point shots (70%!!!). This was our most dominating game of the year as our offense was unstoppable, we controlled the boards (36-32), had a 14-9 turnover advantage, and held the Fighting Sioux to 43% shooting. In addition, we held Jesse Kennard, North Dakota’s big scorer, to just 8 points and 5 of them were in the waning moments of the game. Our double-teaming stopped him completely as he hit only 3 of 14 shots.

CSU Bakersfield wins the Great West Conference Tournament! When we got back to Bakersfield there was a huge celebration (well, huge for Bakersfield). I’m of course extremely happy, but also in total and complete shock!