Denver men’s basketball (15-15, 6-9) returned for their final home game of the season against the UMKC Kangaroos. It was Senior Night and the Pioneers wanted redemption from an earlier 85-71 loss to KC when the Roos held Tommy Bruner to 12 points. Unfortunately, the Roos pulled away in the final five minutes of the first half and the first ten minutes of the second half to earn a convincing 84-69 victory over DU.
The teams traded point and UMKC led by two points, 32-30, with 4:30 remaining in the first half. UMKC outscored DU 12-7 down the stretch to go into the break 45-37. The Roos scored 9 points off turnovers and scored 22 points in the paint in the first 20 minutes.
The Roos started to pull away in the second half when a Tyler Andrew’s layup gave UMKC a double-digit lead, 51-40, with 13:19 remaining. KC poured it on over the next five minutes. A Babacar Diallo tray gave the visitors a 15 point lead, 60-45, and the only remaining suspense fell to Tommy Bruner. Bruner needed more than 25 points to protect his nation-leading 25.1 points per game. Bruner finished with 31 points. The only blemish was his 8 turnovers on the night as UMKC pressured Bruner.
The Roos had balanced scoring with five players in double figures, led by Jamar Brown’s 19 points. Pedro Lopez-Sanvicente finished with 15 points and five rebounds as Denver’s only other double-digit scorer. Senior Carlos Fuentes got his first career points on a free throw, a crowd pleasing highlight to end his career on the stat sheet. All four seniors/grad student opened the game in the starting rotation, a great move by head coach Jeff Wulbrun.
Denver’s travels to St. Paul to face St. Thomas Tommies Saturday (6pm MT) with the incentive to finish with a winning record.
Disappointing. This team has not learned how to play defense at this level. DU will never be a contender until defensive performance improves.
Their brand used to be UMKC Kangaroos. Since 2019, however, they have been the Kansas City Roos.
I was very impressed with Jamar Brown (#5) on KC’s team. He played hard the entire night and finished with an impressive double double.
A few things stood out to me on the defensive end for DU. Seemed like they were flat footed much of the night and in the second half when they needed one stop to eventually turn into two stops, etc. they were unable to get them. They didn’t seem to pressure KC into doing anything they didn’t want to do, didn’t really force turnovers and as a result they were able to get the looks they wanted and a lot of key offensive rebounds.
With Pedro starting to hot, it would’ve been great to see them create opportunities for him so that he could continue to stay involved. He had 10 points in a hurry and then took very few shots in the second half.