JOHNSON, VT
The UMPI Men's team is officially playing their best ball of the year as they picked up a 79-59 rout of the VTSU-Johnson Badgers on Sunday afternoon. The Owls once again had a balanced attack with some key role-players leading the way
How it Happened:
The Owls jumped out to a 12-5 lead thanks to a three and some fast break points. They'd work to grow on that lead and did with back-to-back threes from James Yamashita who kick started his hot day to put UMPI up 23-14. It hovered around ten points until late in the half when UMPI took a 29-20 lead and turned it into a 29-22 lead as they closed the half on a 10-2 run, going into halftime with the momentum.
In the second half, the pattern continued. The Owls defense dug their heels in and made it very tough for Johnson to gain any traction on offense. All the while they continued to shoot well with the secondary scorers becoming the primary ones on this day. AJ Creech had back to back threes to start out the half, setting the tone for the rest of the game. By the 11:32 mark the Owls had all but put it away, leading 57-35. They lead by as many as 25 with two minutes left and ultimately cruised to a 20 point win at 79-59. The Owls shot well again as a team all around, going 41.8% overall, draining nine threes, and shooting 82.4% at the line, while also scoring 24 fast break points. At the same time, they held Johnson to just two threes the whole day, and just eight fast break points.
Top Performers:
UMPI was led by James Yamashita. He finished with a career single game high of 18 points. Yamashita made two threes and went 6-8 from the field. Amazingly, he was only on the floor for 14 minutes, making it an incredibly efficient 18 points to lead UMPI. AJ Creech had 13 points and six rebounds, knocking down three of his four three-point attempts and five of six from the field. Yuki Ishibashi was also big, scoring 13 points as well, while chipping in five rebounds and five assists. The Owls were led on the boards by Akhe McMichael who had eight rebounds while also contributing eight points throughout his twenty minutes as he dealt with some foul trouble. Aleix Moreno had nine and six off the bench.
Next Up:
The Owls make it three wins in a row to improve to 5-10. They are now 4-5 in conference and not only back in the playoff picture, but back in the mix of hosting a home playoff game. They will host Lesley University and Thomas College this coming weekend. See the full schedule here for details.
