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WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Fifth-ranked Midwestern State began their quest for a third consecutive Elite Eight appearance with a 62-54 victory over St. Mary's (Texas) University in an NCAA Division II South Central Regional quarterfinal game Saturday night.
The top-seeded Mustangs, who led 30-23 at the half, used a balanced scoring attack and a strong inside game to get past the Rattlers and earn their 16th consecutive home victory in the friendly confines of D.L. Ligon Coliseum.
Midwestern State dominated inside the paint, outscoring St. Mary's 40 to 28. MSU shot 10 of 17 from inside the three point arc in the first half, but just one of nine from beyond the arc.
Senior reserve forward Chris Buttermore provided a spark for the Mustangs in the first half with a team-high eight points in seven minutes off the bench, including a rim-rattling dunk that got the home crowd on their feet. He finished with a career-high 13 points on six of nine shooting from the field and one out of two at the free-throw line.
St. Mary's, winners of the Heartland Conference tournament last weekend and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, started out strong against Midwestern State, trailing just 21-19 at the 6:24 mark. However, the Rattlers only scored two field goals the final 6:04 of the half, allowing the Mustangs to go on a 9-4 run to end the half.
Senior Lamb Autrey led St. Mary's with eight points in the first half, while senior Ray Marshall added six.
Junior Kevin Kotzur, a second-team selection for the Daktronics All-South Central Region team or St. Mary's, was slowed by two personal fouls in the first half, scoring just four points.
Both teams combined for 20 turnovers in the game's first 20 minutes, with 11 for the Rattlers and nine for Midwestern State.
St. Mary's cut the lead to four points at the 14:42 mark of the second half, but could get no closer as the Mustangs got solid scoring from the bench, outscoring the Rattler's reserves 35-9.
Midwestern State won the rebounding battle, hauling down 37 boards to St. Mary's 21 rebounds.
Despite shooting just 2 of 11 from beyond the three-point line, the Mustangs had four players in double-figures. Along with Buttermore, David Terrell had a team-high 15 points, Thomas Colbert added 12 points and JaMichael Rivers chipped in 10 points to pace Midwestern State.
For St. Mary's, Kotzur had a game-high 17 points and Autrey finished with 14 to lead the scoring column.
Midwestern State, the co-champs of the Lone Star Conference, improves to 27-3 overall and advances to the semifinals of the regional tournament and will play the winner of Washburn – Northwest Missouri State on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
Eighth-seeded St. Mary's, who went 5-2 this year against Lone Star Conference opponents, ends their season at 19-9. |
| Game Notes |
| Midwestern State |
- The Mustangs have not lost to any Lone Star Conference opponent at D.L. Ligon Coliseum since 2008-09.
- MSU entered the 2012 tournament with the third-most victories among all DII programs (now 108-22) since the '08-09 campaign.
- Midwestern is 57-1 in Wichita Falls in its last 58 home games and 4-0 in NCAA tournament contests here since 2010.
- The Mustangs now are 16-5 in 21 first round matchups in both NAIA (10-5) and 6-0 (NCAA) and 31-32 in all national tournament appearances on all levels.
- MSU is coming off its sixth Lone Star Conference championship since 1999 and has a conference-best postseason percentage of .778 (21-6) in LSC title tourneys.
- Former Midwestern State head coach Grant McCasland assisted Baylor to the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship contests against Missouri tonight after last night's 81-74 upset win over No. 3 nationally Kansas.
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| St. Mary's |
- The Rattlers finish the season with a 19-9 mark and ended a three-game winning streak tonight (team was 7-2 in last nine contests).
- Head coach Jim Zeleznak closes the year with a 115-84 mark (.578 winning percentage) over seven seasons with STMU.
- STMU now is tied in its all-time series with MSU at 14-14. Midwestern State is 11-3 in series games played at D.L. Ligon Coliseum.
- The Rattlers fall for the fourth consecutive time in games against the Mustangs. The Hearland Conference power's most recent win over MSU was 75-71 at San Antonio in 2003.
- St. Mary's is coming off the 2012 Heartland Conference championship after sweeping HC round-robin champ Texas A&M-International, Newman (Kan.) and Arkansas-Ft. Smith.
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| Quotes |
| Midwestern State |
MSU coach Nelson Haggerty
Opening Statement
"Hats off to St. Mary's. I really thought they played really tough, especially at the end. Kevin Kotzur, I felt like we did a pretty good job of guarding him in the first half. To his credit, he is just such a load and does such a great job working for post position and he really was able to get some baskets in deep and scored. Lamb was pretty good too. He's the one guy that we were definitely worried about on the perimeter that can go and make plays and he definitely made a couple late. We committed nineteen turnovers. I felt like for us that was a big part of the game. We did some things that were pretty uncharacteristic of this basketball team the way we turned the ball over at some times where we just weren't as solid as we needed to be. But what a game out of Chris Buttermore. Throughout the season I keep finding guys that are coming in and just playing. I don't know if he played the last couple games, but like I said before, like with Kevin grayer, he really gave us a lift. He came in the ball game and scored his first basket and was really consistent in finishing strong. I really think he probably did his best defensive job of the year especially in that first half guarding the big man. And David, we got a double-double out of him. I should just assume he is getting a double-double. He just sucks up boards. I feel like that part of the half where we got that lead and extended he was a big part of that by being active and aggressive under the basket. It was a great win. Win and advance right? That's the name of the game."
On Chris Buttermore's performance
"I've been waiting on it. I've been looking forward to the day that he has a breakout game and what a night to have a breakout game for him than tonight. I mean, he gave us a lift. I know this is something that he's capable of doing and he knows it and I just believe that if he gets the opportunity and we get his confidence level up, which it should be, that this is something he can do pretty consistently for us."
MSU Chris Buttermore
On coming off the bench
"We are a very deep team and we work off of each other very well. I'd say our depth is probably our biggest strength. There's not enough that you can say about these guys. I love this team and this is a very special team. We are just deep and we just do what we do."
MSU David Terrell
On coming off the bench
"Like Chris said, the team is deep but everybody's got talent and like coach said, when he calls your name you better be ready to go. When he tells the first five to go in he says to give it all you've got and when the second group comes in you leave it all out there and give it all you've got as well."
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| St. Mary's |
STMU coach Jim Zeleznak
Opening Statement
"Well we knew it was going to be a very competitive game and it certainly turned out that way. Our kids, as well as Midwestern's kids really played hard. We went into the game thinking that there were going to be two major factors. One was going to be how we rebounded the basketball and the other one is how we took care of the basketball. At half time we didn't do a very good job at that and we got hammered on the boards and we did better job in the second half of taking care of the basketball. But having eighteen turnovers and getting beat sixteen boards, we aren't going to win very many games. The way we have played, those have been strengths of ours and those kinds of stats, it was a wonder we kept the game as close as we did."
On difficulty running their offense
"I certainly think Midwestern's defense had something to do with that. As in most cases, we all have counters to what somebody else it going to try to do to us and I thought our kids, for a stretch of time in the first half, did a poor job of adjusting to Midwestern's pressure. You know give them credit, we didn't adjust and they just kept on getting after us and getting into the passing lanes. I know that is what they do. Consequently, at half time we were sitting on twelve turnovers. We were fortunate to only be down six or seven whatever it was at half time having that many turnovers in one half. Especially in that open floor variety that they are tough to defend shooting two on ones and stuff, like uncontested layups on the other end. I thought we were better in the second half of taking care of the basketball. I thought Midwestern's kids were great job on the offensive boards. I thought they got three or four follow up shots that ended up being big possessions. We try to tell our kids to win the out of bounds possessions, try to win the free throw possessions. Certainly there was one in the end of the game. We were down five, maybe, and they missed a free throw. I can't tell you exactly what it was but it was under two minutes and we did not come up with the rebound. That was the difference of that game having a chance of being tight and Midwestern being able to pull away at the very end. But give credit to them. They did a good job of pounding us on the boards. That is something we have done a great job with but we weren't very effective tonight. We came into tonight thinking our perimeter guys would have to have between fifteen and eighteen rebounds and I don't know what it was tonight but I certainly was anything close to that."
STMU Kevin Kotzur
On the atmosphere
"It was the best environment we have been in all year. I mean, by far, the loudest crowd and it was rocking. We tried to execute but we just got rebounded tonight."
STMU Lamb Autrey
On the atmosphere
"I love it, honestly. I love it. I love crowds and that is what gets a team hyped. I believe you can't let the crowd get to you at all, not at all. Especially being the underdogs of the game. We came out and played hard."
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