Photo by: Jacob Rokeach
The DU men’s basketball team played maybe its worst second half of the season during a 75-49 loss at Middle Tennessee last Thursday, but rebounded with probably their best game of the year on Super Bowl Sunday in a 76-68 home win over Arkansas State.
“It feels good. I feel like we should have won the Middle Tennessee game, but we had a bad second half, but this time around it was good to come out on the right side of things,” said senior guard DaShawn Walker.
After trailing 5-0 early during Sunday’s contest, DU put together a 9-0 run of their own which was just the start to a dominating first half on both the offensive and defensive ends.
“Just being frustrated with ourselves in the past, in other games we let teams jump on us,” said senior forward Antonio Porch. “This time around we jumped on them,”
Denver led by as many as 19 points with just under six minutes remaining in the first period and ended with a 39-24 advantage at the half, the largest lead of the season.
The Indians came out shooting in the second half as expected, but never got closer than eight points as Denver cruised to a rare victory.
“It feels good, you know the wins are kind of few and far between but it feels good. We just got to pick it up now with five games left,” said Porch.
Porch and freshman Tyler Bullock led the way for the Pioneers with 15 apiece, while junior Joe Jackson had 12 points and six rebounds, senior Alex Cox put in 11 points and dished out seven assists and junior transfer Adam Tanner had 10 points.
“This is the type of basketball we like to play. Everybody has a part in it. It is fun to play and I think we are a good team when we find the open man,” said interim Head Coach Kevin Reynolds.
Last Thursday, the Pioneers trailed only 34-32 at the half to the Blue Raiders, but were outscored 41 to 17 in the second tilt on their way to a fourth consecutive loss. Middle Tennessee used an 11-2 run to start the second period and were helped out by DU’s 18 percent shooting from the floor in the second half.
Porch and Walker led the way with nine points apiece while Porch also had seven rebounds and freshman Bullock and Rohnert contributed with eight and seven points respectively. DU had only 10 turnovers to the Blue Raiders eight, but shot 32.5 percent in the game compared to the Sun Belt Conference foe’s 52 percent.
Reynolds is now 3-6 since taking over as interim coach and will lead the Pioneers on Thursday night at 7 p.m. when the Pioneers battle Arkansas Little-Rock in Magness Arena.
It has not been a season to remember, but DU is hoping to end it with a bright spot.
“We are taking it game by game. This is an important stretch for us to close out with four of six at home and we hope we can make a little run here,” said Reynolds.
