FebruARY 25, 2000

Shawnee takes a beating,a whipping and a thrashing

By Dave Feltner
Sports Editor

It wasn't just a loss Shawnee State took the last time they ventured to the Gillmor Center.

It was a beating, a whipping and a thrashing. One of monumental proportions.

The 80-55 final score of that Nov. 30 massacre didn't do the game justice. Tiffin led the Bears 39-4 at one point in the first half.

But a season-long project of improvement by Shawnee State hit its crest Thursday night when the Bears got revenge on the Dragons, 90-85, in the first round of the American Mideast Conference Tournament.

Shawnee State (11-20) sneaked into the tourney as the No. 6 seed, but showed they belong by upsetting the third-seeded Dragons (14-13).

"Coach (Jim) Arnzen has done a tremendous job turning that program around in the matter of two months," said Tiffin coach Steve Fleming, whose first win collegiate win was that 80-55 blowout. "Their kids are obviously playing with a lot of enthusiasm, and a lot of confidence. And I knew coming in that they would come out aggressively because the bottom line is we took it to them the last time they were here."

The Bears led most of the game, and maintained a 10-point advantage until the Dragons made a push with three minutes remaining.

Tiffin trailed 82-74 when Josh Miller started a flurry of Dragon points with a 3-pointer.

Nil Townsend, who hit a 3 just 20 seconds before Miller, then made a sweet pass to Wayne Belcher who converted to make it 84-79 with 1:47 left.

Townsend stole the ensuing inbound pass and sank a layup, the Dragons' seventh point in 30 seconds.

Townsend hit another bucket and a Josh Martin putback knotted the game at 85 with 34 seconds left, but the Dragons went scoreless the rest of the way.

"We didn't execute our rotations on defense," Fleming said. "But give them credit, they knocked down some open shots when they had to. The other thing is we traded shots. We never seemed to come up with the big defensive stop we needed.

"In the last five minutes we made some things happen with our press, but it's like I told the kids, 'where was that intensity the rest of the game? "

Shawnee State got a hoop in the lane from Jay Hall, two foul shots from Dave Hurley and a Hall free throw to sew things up.

Hall, a 6-foot-5 post, burned the Dragons for 32 points on 13-of-18 field goal shooting. He also grabbed 11 rebounds.

Hall had plenty of help from from guards Brooks Fry, Drew Beckett and Kris White, who combined to hit 9 of their 25 3-point attempts.

"To Tiffin's credit, they came at us hard in the end," Arnzen said. "Things started going bad, the crowd got into it, and I think you could tell our kids were a bit scared. We panicked a few times, and that's how you can give away a 12 point lead like that.

"But a road playoff win for our program is huge," he said. "We've only won 10 games this year and only four last year. We've been improving the last month or so, and I thought we could come in here and compete with Tiffin."

Freshman Antonio Robinson turned in a big game for the Dragons, knocking down 22 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.

Doug Taylor (15) and Josh Martin (14) were the only other double-figure scorers for the Dragons.

Fry had 14 for the Bears. Hurley pitched in 13.