GUNNISON, Colo. --- While it was a pair of young guys that paced the Western Colorado men's basketball team offensively Saturday night, it was two of their "old" guys that closed out the game against Adams State.
Freshman
Matthew Ragsdale had his second-consecutive 20-point performance with 21 points and sophomore
Cole Sienknecht added 19 points for the Mountaineers, but senior
James Willis scored nine of their final 10 points while fellow senior
Monroe Porter scored the other point and grabbed three key defensive rebounds in the final minutes during WCU's 88-85 win over the Grizzlies at Paul Wright Gym.
The Mountaineers (7-10 overall, 4-7 RMAC), who led the majority of the contest and by as much as 10 points in the second half, held a 78-77 lead with less than four minutes left in the contest.
Willis scored in the paint for the Mountaineers at the 3:10 mark to make it a three point advantage before draining a 3-pointer at the 2:24 mark to make it 83-77.
The Grizzlies (5-12, 3-8) closed the lead to four in the final minute and fouled Willis to send him to the line for one-and-one. He drained both free throws to increase the lead to six at 85-79 with 33 seconds remaining.
After Porter grabbed a rebound on ASU's next possession, he was fouled and split a pair of free throws to make it a six-point lead and two more Willis free throws with 12 seconds left sealed it as a pair of 3-pointers by Adams State late weren't enough.
Ragsdale did most of his damage from beyond the arc, going 5-for-8 from 3-point range a night after scoring a career-high 24 points in a loss to Fort Lewis. Sienknecht has seven rebounds to go along with his 19 points. Willis had big game wit h12 points, seven assists and six rebounds while Porter had adouble-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
As a team, the Mountaineers actually shot better from 3-point range (13-for-28) as they did from inside the arc (13-for-35) and helped themselves out by going 23-for-28 (82.1 percent) from the free-throw line.
WCU returns to action Friday as they travel to take on Westminster.
