PRESQUE ISLE, ME
The UMPI Men's team is rounding into form as they made it four in a row with a win over Lesley University on Friday night. The Owls got hot early on and never really cooled off especially with the three-ball. UMPI made 15 as a team, the single-game high for the Owls this season.
How it Happened:
UMPI jumped out to an 8-2 lead to start out but fell flat for a few minutes as Lesley went on a 10-0 run as they played the best they'd play all night. The Owls were held scoreless from 18:23 all the way to the 13:35 mark in the first half before they'd pick up the pace again. UMPI responded with a 9-0 run of their own to take back the lead at 17-12. They'd never relinquish that lead for the rest of the night, steadily building upon it from there. Lesley got it back to two points at 20-18, but the Owls pulled away from there. Another 9-0 run made it 32-20, and then UMPI would finish out the half strong to take a 40-25 locker room lead. The Owls made nine threes in the first half going 9-17 from beyond the arc.
In the second half they'd keep the pattern going as the Owls simply took flight and ran away with the game from the first inbounds pass of the second half. More shots fell as UMPI made it a rout quite quickly. By the 16:34 mark it was 51-29 UMPI, and by the 12:15 mark it was 65-31. Everyone got in on the action in the second half as Coach Kane got everybody in the game. In the end, the Owls would cruise to an 86-58 victory for their biggest margin of victory on the season at they looked the best they've looked shooting the basketball all year long, while also staying very solid on the defensive side of things.
Top Performers:
James Yamashita turned in another career high in this one for UMPI. He posted 20 points, the game after setting a career high of 18 at Johnson. Yamashita had six three-pointers going a stellar 6-8 from bonus range. He grabbed four rebounds as well. Next behind Yamashita was Aleix Moreno who had 14 and eight. Moreno went 4 for 4 from three-point range as the southpaw shooter had a career day shooting. It was a very balanced attack from there as Tyson Enget was next closest with nine, Tariq Martin had eight and Yuki Ishibashi had seven.
On a night the Owls were without Dwaine Williams, and their usual scoring tandem of Akhe McMichael and Doug McCalla were held to just 12 points combined, the depth of UMPI showed up and showed out in this contest as they look like one of the more dangerous teams in the NAC with this true team victory.
Next Up:
The Owls improve to 6-10 and extend their winning streak to four games. They also get back to .500 in conference play at 5-5. They'll try to make it a fifth straight win when they host Thomas College on Saturday afternoon for a 2 p.m. tip-off.
