Grizzlies on the road for two weekend exhibitions

Senior Sean Amos is one of four returning players from last year's 18-10 Grizzly squad.

CEDAR CITY, Utah— The Adams State College men’s basketball team will make final preparations for the upcoming 2008-09 season as they play two exhibition games against NCAA Division I foes this weekend.  The first will be Friday at 7:30 p.m. against Southern Utah University here in the Thunderbirds’ campus.

The Grizzlies then board a bus for a Saturday evening game at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo.  Tip-off against the Rams is at 7 p.m. in Moby Arena and can be heard on KSPK-FM (104.1 in Alamosa) and via the internet at www.kspk.com.

Live statistics of that game can also be seen on the Rams’ website.

The Grizzlies, who won an NCAA Division II era (1992-93/Present) school record by winning 18 games in 2007-08, are under the direction of second-year coach Mark Murdock.

Murdock returns four players from last year’s squad, including seniors Vitor de Zoppa (Sorocaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil) and Sean Amos (Philadelphia, Pa.) and sophomore Seth Heinbaugh (Prescott, Ariz.), who averaged a combined 24.1 points per game for the Grizzlies last year.  ASC, which has nine newcomers including six junior college transfers on the 13-man roster, also returns an electrifying player in 5-foot-9 junior guard Adrian Davis (Lubbock, Texas) who redshirted last year after transferring from Lubbock Christian University.

The Grizzlies, who begin the regular season on Nov. 15 at Oklahoma Panhandle State, were picked fourth in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference’s West Division and sixth overall in the conference’s preseason coaches’ poll.

SUU is under the direction of second year head coach Roger Reid, who has won 163 games at the NCAA Division I level.  The Thunderbirds finished 11-19 overall but posted a solid 9-9 Summit League record.  They have been picked seventh amongst 10 teams in their conference poll thanks in part to having have nine newcomers and just five returning letterwinners and two starters in senior guard Dave Marek and senior forward Tyler Quinney, who scored 17 points in the Thunderbirds’ 98-92 exhibition win over Montana Western on Monday.

Junior guard Davis Baker, who started 13 games a year ago before coming off the bench down the stretch last season, poured in an impressive 35 points on a 15-for-22 shooting effort in that game.  He canned 5 of 9 3-point attempts, seemingly not bothered in the least by the moving back of the college basketball 3-point line this season.

CSU, which posted a 7-25 overall record while failing to win a Mountain West Conference win in Tim Miles’ first year as the Rams’ bench boss, also has a exhibition win already on record after defeating Chadron State 94-78 in a Monday night contest.

Andre McFarland, who started 31 of the Rams’ games last year, was 7-for-9 from the floor and 3-for-3 from beyond the arc as she shared team-high scoring honors with 18 points.  Willis Gardner, who started 28 games a year ago, also scored 18 points on a 5-for-6 shooting effort.