CHANUTE – Four Panthers in double-digit scoring led by freshman guard Jonathan Breeland Jr. who poured in 16 points and grabbed a team-high 7 rebounds. Other scorers Corbett Kimberlin added 14 points, Jae-Min Yang scored 12 points and grabbed 7 rebounds, while James Taylor finished with 11 points, but the Neosho men's basketball team fell 69-80 to the visiting Coffeyville Red Ravens on Saturday evening inside the Panther Gymnasium.
 
With 7 players missing from the lineup, 3 to the flu, 2 to injury and 2 to disciplinary issues. The shorthanded Panthers still came out in full attack mode.  Jae-Min Yang's fifteen-foot jumper from the baseline would give the Panthers the first score of the game.  But Coffeyville would answer with a deep three by Tony Hudson. For the next 10 minutes, the two teams would go back and forth exchanging buckets and at the media time out it was Coffeyville who held a 21 to 19 lead.
 
"I thought we did a pretty good job early of defending them and finding shooters." said Head Coach Jeremy Coombs, "I was pretty worried about their size, but we seemed to handle that pretty well."
 
After the media timeout, the Ravens would make an 11 to 2 run capped off by a Tylor Perry three-pointer. But it was Yang who nailed a deep three over Kymani Dunham to cut the Coffeyville lead to five just before half. 
 
In the second half, the Ravens would push the lead to as high as 13 after another Tony Hudson three with 15:15 to play but the Panthers would find a burst of energy and put together several stops and cut the lead to 4 points. Panthers would find an offense spark from Sophomore Jae-min Yang and went on a 9 to 2 run capped by a Jonathan Breeland Jr. layup to trail 58 to 64 with 8:09 left to play. But that would be as close as the Panthers would get as the Ravens would finish off the Panthers 80 to 69.
 
"I thought we did a nice job sharing the basketball and taking good shots." Said Coombs. "We just flat ran out of gas late in that game and some of our shots just fell short.  I'm very proud of the seven guys that went out there and battled for us."
 
The Panthers finished the game shooting 41 percent (25 of 61) from the floor while Coffeyville connected on 47 percent (29 of 61). The Panthers only connected on 27 percent (6 of 22) of their threes compared to Coffeyville 39 percent (11 of 28).
 
The Panthers will be back home on Monday, January 27 to take on Sterling University JV at 7:30 pm here at the Panther Gymnasium.
 
For more information, go to www.goneosho.com or follow @GoNeoshoHoops or GoNeosho on Twitter for updates throughout the year.