Men's basketball game recaps for Feb. 21-24

Feb. 21, Marshalltown Community College at Sedalia

The Roadrunners fell 74-68 to the Marshalltown Community College Tigers. The Roadrunners trailed 34-25 with less than four minutes remaining in the opening half. Freshman guard Tyreek Scott-Grayson closed the half with a dunk to cut the deficit to 42-35.

With about eight minutes left in the game and after trailing by as many as 16 points, SFCC took their first lead when Scott-Grayson splashed home a three-point shot to give SFCC a 59-58 lead. Down the stretch, Marshalltown made the plays to secure the victory.

"I knew this was going to be a tough game," said Head Coach Matt Brown. "Our intensity level wasn't where it needed to be tonight, but the good news is we have another game on Saturday and still have an opportunity to finish in second place in our region."

Scott-Grayson led the Roadrunners in scoring with 23 points, pulled down a team-high five rebounds and led in steals with four. Sophomore guard Andre (A.J.) Walker contributed 19 points. Sophomore guard Derrick Brock, Jr. dished out a team-high four assists.

Feb. 24, Mineral Area College at Sedalia

The Roadrunners sent a large Homecoming and Sophomore Night crowd home happy with a 71-67 win over the MAC Cardinals.  

SFCC (19-9, 4-4 in Region 16, 6-4 in the Missouri Community College Athletic Conference) started the game playing well on both ends of the floor and took a 41-24 lead late in the opening half. The 17-point lead was the largest held by either team in the contest. SFCC led the game 41-25 at halftime.

"We played with a lot of confidence early on in the game," said Brown. "We got some good shots at the basket. When Mineral Area stepped up their game and our offense was struggling, we made adjustments. Our guys are resilient, and I'm really proud of them."

The Cardinals fought their way back into the contest and took a 57-52 lead with about six minutes remaining in the game. Mineral Area would extend their advantage to nine points. SFCC used clutch shooting and strong defense to retake control of the game. Scott-Grayson completed an old-fashioned three-point play to tie the score at 65 with less than two minutes left in the game.

"Late in the game, Dominic Fragola came off the bench to hit a key three-point shot for us," said Brown. We put Christian Brown into the game, and he hit another three-pointer to prime the pump."

Freshman guard/forward LePear Toles led the team in scoring with 12 points, pulled down a team-high nine rebounds and led in steals with two. Freshman guard Tim Leavell contributed 11 points. Walker dished out a team-high 10 assists in the game.

Coach Brown is very proud of his sophomores and freshman academic qualifiers who will move on at the end of the year. They were honored at halftime of the women's contest.

"Isaac Bassey did a good job, especially in the first half," said Brown. "Christian hit a couple of big three-point shots. LePear had a good game and played a ton of minutes for us. A.J. did a good job as well. Derrick, as always, was a strong defender; everyone played their role tonight. I'm really proud of them."

SFCC opens the Region 16 championship as the number two seed and will, again, take on MAC as the third-seed in the semifinal round at 8 p.m. March 1 at Jason Gym on the Lincoln University campus in Jefferson City.

David Rohrbach  
SFCC Athletics