Robby Hanzlik scored 19 points to lead the Grizzly effort. Photo courtesy Andrew Nyhus, Winona State Athletics.Grizzlies battle yet fall by seven to 2-time National Champs
December 19, 2009WINONA, Minn.— Sophomore Robby Hanzlik (Denver, Colo.) scored 19 points while true freshman Nick Fox (Colorado Springs, Colo.) grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds en-route to his first career double-double but were not quite enough for the Adams State College men’s basketball team to overcome the powerhouse Winona State (Minn.) University Warriors Saturday night here in the McCown Gymnasium.
The Warriors, who won 2006 and 2008 NCAA Division II National Championships while advancing to the 2007 title game, received 19 points from sophomore forward Joel Armstrong and another 14 from senior guard David Johnson as they improved to 8-2 with the 60-53 win.
The Grizzlies, now 3-7 on the year, trailed by 10 points at half and by a dozen on an Armstrong layup early in the second, but then went on a 7-0 run to close to within 31-26, remaining close throughout the rest of the night.
However, the Warriors held the Grizzlies without a 3-pointer on 13 attempts throughout the contest and out-rebounded them 49-31 to hold on to the win.
Although Hanzlik, who misfired on eight 3-point attempts and the Grizzlies struggled with their shooting, they did do a good job of holding on to the ball committing just 11 turnovers. They also recorded 11 steals and forced 19 Warrior turnovers helping keep the game close.
Although the Grizzlies never led, they were within a single point (20-19) on a Kek Biel (Windsor, Ontario, Canada) dunk at the 5:31 mark of the first half but watched the Warriors score the final nine points of the half, seven of which came from Johnson.
The 6-foot-2 guard, who hit a trio of 3-pointers throughout the night, answered Biel’s dunk with a 4-point play on the Warriors next possession and then hit another 3-pointer a minute later as the Grizzlies, who shot at just a 28.0 percent (7-25) clip in the first half and at a 35.6 percent (21-59) rate throughout the came up empty in the final five minutes of the half.
Shooting just 30.0 percent (9-30) themselves in the defensive first half, the Warriors then went up 31-29 in the first minute of the second half before two Fox free throws, a Hanzlik 3-point play and a Fox lay-up with 15:35 mark brought the score to 31-26.
The teams then traded buckets before a 5-0 Warrior run brought the home team’s lead back up to double-figures (38-28) on a Xavier Humphrey trey with 13:16 left.
The Warrior led then fluctuated between eight to 12 points for the next nine minutes but was sliced to just seven on Hanzlik and Fox buckets, the latter of which came with 3:46 left.
However, the Grizzlies would miss two straight 3-point attempts and a pair of free throws and were still down by nine points before a Hanzlik steal and pass to Biel for a layup closed the gap back to seven with 90 seconds to go.
However, the Warriors did enough to close out the win as the Grizzlies missed two more 3-pointers in the waning moments of what was their final game of 2009.
The Grizzlies, who have now lost four straight and seven of their last eight, will now be off until Jan. 2 when they travel to Laramie, Wyo. to face Division I Wyoming, currently 5-5 on the campaign.
That game begins at 2 p.m. in the Cowboys’ Arena Auditorium and can be heard live on KSPK-FM (104.1 in Alamosa) and via the internet at www.kspk.com.
