Jimmies sail to 83-51 win over Mounty Marty

With 18:19 to go in the first half, the University of Jamestown’s men's basketball team were trailing 7-2 to Mount Marty University. Over the next ten minutes, the Jimmies (12-2, 4-2) went on a 22-5 run to sail to the 83-51 win over the Lancers (3-13, 0-8).

This game serves as the Jimmies final conference game until Jan. 1, which makes finishing off the calendar year with a conference win in such a commanding fashion feel good according to Brady Birch.

"It's a nice win to finish the GPAC conference play leading into the Christmas break," Neville said. "It's nice to have a full complete win, play all 40 minutes. We haven't done that much this year and so it just felt good to get a team win."

The Jimmies’ Marc Kjos chucked up a desperation three with 14:45 to go in the first half to beat the shot clock that was nothing but net to put the Jimmies up 12-7. With 6:40 to go, the Lancers’ Matthew Becker hit the transition three to make it a 29-14 game in favor of the Jimmies. After the Jimmies’ John Argue hit a jumper on one end, the Jimmies bench exploded when Argue spiked a ball out of bounds.

The Jimmies ability to rebound from a slow start and sprint out to a big lead is turning defense into offense Birch said.

"I think it starts with the defensive end. Both teams came out pretty hot, pretty confident," Birch said. "The more we get stops and we keep pushing the pace, the more soon that we will break and get the lead. As long as we play defense."

In the Jimmies' last game on Dec. 7, they were up 41-13 over Dakota State at halftime and gave up 58 second half points to hold on to an 81-71 win. As a result, Jimmies head coach Danny Neville's message to his team at the half was to stay locked in.

"I told them at halftime 'play with your heart and not your mind, don't think about being up 20 or the Dakota State game where we were up 30 and they came back, and get tense when they go on a run. Just play with your heart, play as hard as you can, and don't think about it," Neville said.

With 12:37 to go in the second half, Kjos hit a deep three to make it a 57-33 game. With just under eight minutes to go, Birch drove in and fought through the contact to hit the layup to make the game 63-38 in favor of the Jimmies.

The Jimmies return home at 7 p.m. on Dec. 17 to face off against Dickinson State. The Lancers are back in action at 3 p.m. on Dec. 17 at Waldorf University.

UJ 83, MMU 51

UJ: 42 41–83

MMU: 22 29–51

Points leaders:

UJ: Marc Kjos 15, Brady Birch 13, Will Cordes 12

MMU: Tyrell Harper 15, Elijah Pappas 10, Nick Coleman 8,

Leading rebounders:

UJ: Birch 10, Devon Schultz 10, John Argue 8

MMU: Harper 9, Matthew Becker 6, Coleman 3

Assists leaders:

UJ: Kjos 6, Cordes 2, Woodford 2

MMU: Arlt 2, Harper 1, Diaz 1