Chanute, KS - Freshman guard,
Magic Reliford recorded his first college 30-point game in the Panther's 106-61 victory over the Baker University reserves. Reliford scored 34 points by hitting 8 deep balls and going a perfect 4-4 from the charity stripe on Saturday night.
"It was defiantly a step forward after the upsetting loss to Labette," Panther Head Coach
Jeremy Coombs said. "We played harder, played as a team and obviously we shot the ball much much better!"
Three other Panthers were in double digit scoring as
Brian Tolefree had 15 points 5 rebounds and 6 assists,
Davion Benton finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds, while
Jay McMiller added 10 points and 12 rebounds.
"I thought we had much better production from our bench and feel like Jay and Davion gave us a spark," Coombs said. "If we can get that night in and night out it will help us win a lot of ball games. Plus, I'm not big on having just one or two guys doing all the scoring. I like it spread out among the team."
The Neosho defense limited the Baker offense to just 26% shooting from the field and 32% shooting from beyond the arc. The Panthers shot a much improved 48% from the field and 38% from deep. But the overwhelming stat of the night was how dominate the Panthers were on the glass, as they posted 54 rebounds to Bakers 26.
"I thought we did a much better job defending the paint, but we still need to work on guarding the three-point line," Coombs said. "I also thought we rebounded much better, but we still need to crash the offensive glass harder and we will address that in practice this week."
The Panthers now (1-1) will be back in action Tuesday evening as the Swedes of Bethany University come to town. The tip will be around 7:30 pm, following the Women's game.
Neosho County 106, Baker JV 61
Neosho: 50 56 - 106
Baker JV: 30 31 - 61
Scoring
Neosho County:
Magic Reliford 34,
Brian Tolefree 15,
Davion Benton 15,
Jay McMiller 10,
Jack Taliaferro 7, Shannon Cords 6,
James Taylor 5,
Jae-Min Yang 5,
Chol Adup 5,
Sai Fisher 4
