January 13, 2010

Moosmann Leads Central Missouri to 96-68 Win

By David Boyce

WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- In the previous home game Central Missouri senior guard Alex Moosmann played, he made just one basket in 11 attempts against Fort Hays State.

The Mules suffered their only loss of the season and Moosmann was obviously disappointed.

After nearly everybody emptied out of the Multipurpose Building except for the cleaning crew and a few sports writers, Moosmann returned to the floor with graduate assistant coach Landon Kurz and worked on his jump shot for 15 to 20 minutes.

And then Moosmann sat in the stands alone, mulling over what took place.

"I think it helped," he said. "I worked out some of the kinks and some of the things I did wrong right then and there before I had to sleep on it. I wanted to work on it right away."

Moosmann returned to the Multipurpose Building Wednesday evening after a 6-for-12 performance in a four-point victory at Nebraska-Omaha on Saturday.

Moosmann was stroking shots even better against Northwest Missouri. He made four of five shots in the first half to help the Mules build a 21-point halftime lead on the way to an easy 96-68 victory.

"It's tough to shoot as poorly as I did against Fort Hays, especially at home," said Moosmann, who finished with 21 points on 8 of 10 shooting. "I was pretty happy that there were a lot of people here and gave us the support. We needed to have a good game."

The Bearcats simply couldn't stop Moosman. He was just as hot at the start of the second half, knocking down a couple of more treys in the first three-minutes.

When he hit his second trey of the second half with 17:13 left, Central Missouri held a commanding 64-37 lead and Moosmann was 5-for-6 from three-point range.

By no means was Central Missouri's 14^th victory in 15 games a one-man show.

Moosmann is just one of many examples of the Mules putting in the work to win and caring enough to immediately find a way to overcome a bad outing.

Seniors Sanijay Watts and Tremaine Luellen have the same drive and it rubs off on younger players like Ryan Oakley and Bryce Brunz.

"The three seniors, on and off the court, we got to lead by example for our underclassmen," said Luellen, who finished with 17 points.

The effort is why Central Missouri improved to 7-1 in the MIAA and why a crowd of 4,109 showed up Wednesday night. Many NCAA Division II basketball teams would salivate to have 4,000 for a Saturday evening game.

"We really care about winning," said Watts, who finished with 16 points. "Last year it really hurt losing in the final four. The three seniors decided we are going to do whatever it takes to get back and win a championship."

From the start, Central Missouri treated its large crowd to some fantastic team basketball.

Northwest Missouri stayed close in the opening minutes and trailed only 10-8.

And then Moosmann, Watts, Luellen and Brunz all got unbelievably hot. The Mules quickly extended their lead to 19-10 and later 39-25.

"It's a lot of fun to play in a game like this," said Brunz, who finished with 18. "The crowd is into it, the players are into it. It's a good time. That's why we play the game."

The Bearcats actually shot well in the first half, making 12 of 21 shots for a more than respectable 57 percent.

But Moosmann, Watts, Luellen and Brunz combined to go 16-for-21 from the field and Dusty Allen chipped in 2-for-2.

"I love it when everybody is rolling," Luellen said. "There is no better feeling like that. It seems like the goal is like throwing a rock in the ocean."

Central Missouri shot 63 percent from the field in the first half and went into halftime with a commanding 53-32 lead.

The Bearcats, who dropped to 8-7 and 3-5, were led by Elijah Allen. He finished with 19 points.

The challenge for Northwest Missouri is to learn from a loss the way the Mules did over a week ago.

Central Missouri beat a very good Nebraska-Omaha team 82-78 in Omaha on Saturday.

"After the loss we didn't drop our heads," Luellen said. "Everybody came ready and prepared to practice the next day, and we stayed focused. We didn't let the loss bring us down."

To reach David Boyce, contributing writer for the MIAA, e-mail dboyce@themiaa.com.