(Peru, Neb.)—The Peru State men's basketball team won its sixth game in a row on Saturday evening defeating Graceland 85-72. The Bobcats are now 17-5 overall and 12-4 in Heart of America Athletic Conference play while the Yellowjackets have fallen to 13-9 overall and 8-8 in conference play.
Below is a breakdown of how the game went…
It was a back-and-forth game early on as the Bobcats were up one 11-10 after a
Sayvon Traylor (Atlanta) three with 14:30 to play in the first. The Bobcats then went on an 11-4 run to take a 22-14 lead with around 11 minutes remaining in the first half.
Contributing to the run were baskets by
David Wingett Jr. (Winnebago),
Jibril Harris (Chicago),
Troy Houghton (Omaha),
Man Man Baker (Aurora, Colo.) and a three by Traylor.
Graceland got the lead back to within five after a three but then Peru State went on a 8-2 run to take a 30-19 lead after a layup from Baker.
The Yellowjackets then stopped the run and cut the lead down to nine trailing 30-21 with 6:43 to play in the first. Peru State then went on a 10-1 run as its lead ballooned up to 18 40-22 after a Harris three point shot.
Graceland did not go down without a fight as they went on a 6-0 run to cut the lead down to a four possession gamer trailing 40-28. The Bobcats would only score seven more points in the half as they took a 11-point 47-36 lead into the break.
Peru State started the second half on a 6-0 run to take a 53-38 lead after a dunk from Harris. Graceland was able to cut the lead down to 13 but then
Lorenzo Anderson (Lithonia, Ga.) hit an and-one layup to go back up 16 56-40.
Graceland then went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead down to seven trailing 56-49 with 12:21 to play in the game. The Yellowjackets then cut the lead down to seven once more trailing 58-51 with only around ten minutes to play in the game.
Harris then hit back-to-back threes to go up nine 63-54 with under ten minutes to go in the game. The Yellowjackets a little later in the half got it to a two possession game trailing 66-60 with six minutes to play.
Houghton then came up with a huge and-one as the Bobcats then went back up 69-60. Graceland kept punching back as another three cut the lead back down to six as they trailed 69-63. Peru State got its lead back up to double digits leading 73-63 after a layup from Traylor.
Graceland got the lead back down to single digits with under four minutes to play in the game. Harris then hit a huge three on the other end as the Bobcats were now up 76-65.
Anderson then hit a big three as the Bobcats were now up 79-67. Graceland got it to single digits once more but ended up falling short as Peru State came away with the 85-72 victory.
Peru State shot 36-of-59 from floor shooting a whopping 61%, 9-of-20 from three shooting 45% and a perfect 4-of-4 from the line.
Graceland shot 27-of-53 from the field shooting 50.9%, 7-of-16 from deep shooting 43.8% and 8-of-9 from the charity stripe shooting 88.9%.
Peru State outscored Graceland 46-30 in the paint, 19-12 in points off turnovers and 12-8 in bench points.
Harris led the way in points with 27, Anderson finished with 14, Houghton put in 13 Traylor had 12 and Wingett Jr. had 11. Baker led the way in rebounds with seven and assists with eight.
Peru State has a huge matchup this Wednesday, February 1, as the face No. 9 William Penn in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Tip-Off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
