The energy in the gym was there on Friday from the sea of cadets in the stands and from the Colonels on the court, but Missouri Military Academy couldn't prevent its losing streak from extending to 12 games with a 46-40 loss to Chamois at home in Mexico. MMA had already lost once this season to the Pirates but by a 56-33 score.
For that reason, head coach Roger Siwak was proud of his players for keeping the game close throughout, for carrying a 27-26 lead into the fourth quarter and for taking away the Chamois shooting that has hurt them badly in the second half of the previous meeting.
"We've been working really hard on closing out better with high hands," Siwak said, "We've also been talking about active hands on defense for deflections."
Siwak said there were mistakes at critical moments like missed free throws and a missed block out on a free throw on defense while Chamois was 10-for-18 on free throws in the fourth quarter (Caleb Keilholz 6-for-6 in fourth as part of 10 points). He said MMA had to put Chamois at the line after falling behind 36-35 with 1:27 left due to the work inside from Dawson Brandt, who finished with a game-high 22 points off the bench for the Pirates and had 19 points in the second half.
The Colonels had their own force inside in 6-foot-6 Rwandan Gihana Favour Nziza as he finished with a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebound along with four blocks. Nziza did foul out when Chamois took the lead late in the fourth quarter, but Mateo Eaton and Ky-mani Erskine combined for 15 points off the bench and Josh McCart hit one of his two 3-pointers to pull MMA within 39-38 with 19.3 seconds remaining.
"Obviously, you want to win, but I felt like our guys played hard," Siwak said. "Defensively, we did what we wanted to do. We tried something tonight that we like. We let our players write the keys of the game and gave them ownership in the keys. They went in the locker room without, wrote the keys, did a great job and they owned it."
MMA plays tomorrow morning starting at 10 a.m. at Canton (11-5) before playing at Sunnydale Adventist Academy at 7 p.m. Monday (MMA lost first meeting 63-41).
Look for the full story in the Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024 edition of the Mexico Ledger.
