Photo courtesy DU Athletics
Two evenly matched teams traded punches the entire second half but Denver pulled away in the closing minutes from the Sacramento State Hornets, 72-61.
Coming off an OT loss on Saturday night, it was a quick turnaround of less than 24 hours for the Pioneers. In the first half, the difference was cold shooting by Denver – shooting 32.3% while the Hornets shot 40.0% -with some easy interior buckets. The Pioneers trailed by as many as 16 points but chipped away at Sacramento State. The Pioneers trailed at half 25-31. DU had only 2 turnovers in the first half and came to life the final four minutes of the stanza.
At 17:10 the Pioneers took their first lead on a shot by C.J. Bobbitt, 37-35. Denver led 47-46 with 10:00 minutes to go with a Jake Pemberton bomb. At this point, Joe Rosga only had 2 points with Daniel Amigo chipping in with 11. Jake Pemberton delivered 12 points to lead the Pioneer scorers. The teams exchanged buckets and free throws until the 5:00 mark when the teams were separated by a single bucket when the Pios took the lead 57-55. Two offensive rebounds by Amigo and a put back gave the Pioneers their largest lead of 4 points. Denver led 61-60 at 3:00. After some stops and buckets by DU, Denver jumped to a quick lead 68-61 with 1:09 to go on another Jake Pemberton tray. Denver controlled the ball from that point on and made free throws in the closing minute to take the hard fought win.
https://twitter.com/DU_MHoops/status/802992804074926080
The biggest positive from the game was Daniel Amigo’s continued improvement as well as other teammates stepping up when Joe Rosga had a rare poor shooting game (0-4 FG’s) and only 6 points.
Said Rodney Billups following the game, “There is so much room for improvement. We really weren’t playing great defense. We want to hold them (opponents) to 40.0% (shooting) and they shot over 50% in the second half. The guys looked tired but it was mental toughness.”
Next up, Wyoming on Wednesday, November 30th @ Laramie, Wyoming at 7:00 PM MT.
I’d feel a lot better about the Wyoming game if it were at home (or maybe not since the Pios are 0-2 at home and 2-1 away from home!). If Denver can avoid dumb mistakes I think they can win, but they will definitely be underdogs.
I was listening to the Sacramento State radio broadcast of this last game and the announcer was a little miffed late in the game because it was very quiet in the gym and a Denver fan yelled right when a Sacramento State player was shooting a free throw, apparently causing him to miss badly – made me laugh.
Still a lot of experimentation with lineups and substitutions. It is going to take some time for the new staff to figure out player roles. Still, a nice game following the overtime loss.
The most important skill a team can learn is how to win – the art of the comeback and the close-out of a competitor.
The team is also learning to reduce turnovers, and to compensate for a key player having a bad shooting game.
Opponents get much tougher now, so expect DU to take lumps and keep learning….
GIve them
I’d feel a lot better about the Wyoming game if it were at home (or maybe not since the Pios are 0-2 at home and 2-1 away from home!). If Denver can avoid dumb mistakes I think they can win, but they will definitely be underdogs.
I was listening to the Sacramento State radio broadcast of this last game and the announcer was a little miffed late in the game because it was very quiet in the gym and a Denver fan yelled right when a Sacramento State player was shooting a free throw, apparently causing him to miss badly – made me laugh.
Still a lot of experimentation with lineups and substitutions. It is going to take some time for the new staff to figure out player roles. Still, a nice game following the overtime loss.
The most important skill a team can learn is how to win – the art of the comeback and the close-out of a competitor.
The team is also learning to reduce turnovers, and to compensate for a key player having a bad shooting game.
Opponents get much tougher now, so expect DU to take lumps and keep learning….
GIve them