Balanced Poplar Bluff team rolls past NMCC

Wednesday, February 2, 2005

NEW MADRID - Even without Tyler Hansbrough, the Poplar Bluff Mules are a team to be reckoned with.

Hansbrough, a University of North Carolina signee, sat out all but the final 1:04 of Tuesday's game against New Madrid County Central but the Mules still rolled to a 62-35 victory at NMCC High School.

Although the 6-foot-9 all-stater's playing time was limited due to an injured toe, the Mules served noticed that they are not a one-man show.

"I haven't seen them all year but I've seen them on TV -- they're just so solid," said NMCC head coach Scott Kruse. "They can all shoot it. They've got size, strength and shooters."

Hansbrough's younger brother, Ben, showed his ability as he scored a game-high 14 points with nine assists.

"I'll take 14 points from him on any given night and the thing is a 5-8 guy (Malcolm Long) did it," said Kruse. "I'm proud of that effort right there. (Hansbrough) sees the floor well, but being guarded by that small of a guy he can see the floor very easily a lot of times."

NMCC (2-17, 1-5 SEMO Conference) came out with a plan of slowing the game down. The plan worked for much of the first half as they led 6-2 after the first quarter against the potent Mules offense.

"We said that we needed to extend our defense, but we weren't out in passing lanes enough," said Poplar Bluff coach John David Pattillo. "We got out a little further, took some more chances and trapped in some areas and made them throw it over the top some and got them in a hurry."

NMCC was still in good shape midway through the second quarter with the score tied 8-8.

But Hansbrough's three straight baskets spurred an 11-0 run to take a 19-8 lead with 1:44 left in the half.

The Mules (16-4, 4-0 SEMO Conference) ended up with a 22-12 halftime lead.

"We were real happy with our first half," said Kruse. "We came out and wanted to do two or three things and I felt like we did that. They went on one little bitty run. The game's just too long. If we knew every night we were going to play a short game we could battle about anyone."

NMCC cut the Mules' lead to 25-17 on an old-fashioned 3-point play by Ben Eakins with 6:50 left in the third quarter but the Mules took control of the game from there, outscoring the Eagles 21-7 the rest of the period.

A Quentin Binion 3-pointer still had the Eagles within striking distance at 37-24 but the Mules finished the quarter on a 9-0 run to put the game away, leading 46-24 heading into the fourth quarter.

"In the second half they ran and jumped us, they pressed us, they trapped us and it sped us up," said Kruse. "But we still had open looks. They knew we didn't want it to be a high-scoring game."

Allan Spencer had 13 points and Brad Chronister had 12 points for the Mules.

NMCC was led by Binion and Joseph Howell with eight points apiece.

Tyler Hansbrough entered the game with 1:04 left in the contest and promptly scored consecutive baskets to reach the final margin.

"We're being cautious with him," said Pattillo. "He has a very, very slight fracture in his toe. An MRI showed that, but he's able to start moving around and going. I actually told him to take his boot off and start moving around."

Hansbrough is in the running for Mr. Missouri basketball and one of the criteria for the award is to participate in a certain amount of the team's games.

"It was mentioned to me that that's maybe a concern," said Pattillo. "If he's concerned about it then I'm concerned about it. I'm conflicted on how you handle that because he hasn't practiced all week. I don't want to throw him in there because you're putting him in there in front of somebody else.

"The game was out of hand and it was a good situation to put him in and not worry about it. I'm just like everybody else, I want to see him play. But I don't want to hurt our basketball team in doing something like that.

"I'm sure he'll play Friday, but how much and how often I don't know yet. We'll just have to see the next two practices."

Poplar Bluff will host Sikeston on Friday night at 6 p.m. for their homecoming. NMCC will travel to Scott County Central at 6 p.m. Friday.

Poplar Bluff defeated NMCC in the junior varsity contest 52-38.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: