UNK Men Fall At Home Vs Pittsburg State

Kearney, Neb. – Sophomore guard Jordan Frison had a game-high 26 points and a school-record 18 assists to help Pittsburg State outscore Nebraska Kearney, 100-93, Thursday night at the Health & Sports Center.

The Gorillas (16-9, 12-4) beat UNK (10-14, 8-8) for a fourth straight time with this the only meeting between the two this winter.

It was an old-fashioned shoot out as both teams seemingly couldn’t miss. Pitt shot 69% (18 of 26) in the second half, including a 9 of 11 from deep, to overcome UNK’s 61% (20 of 23) marksmanship. That featured a 10 of 17 effort from behind the arc but the Lopers also were just 15 of 27 at the line overall. That is their second lowest effort of the season (55.6%); they came in at 73 percent.

“Frison’s decision making … I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anybody have 18 assists in a game. We threw everybody at him; JB, Allen and Trey are all great defenders and DJ and Chase are pretty darn good hedgers,” said Loper head coach Marty Levinson. “We watched him on film; he kind of hits the skip and the roller better than anybody in the league.”

Despite the missed freebies and Frison finding teammate after teammate for buckets, UNK was down 94-91 with 27 seconds left and had possession of the ball. The Lopers called timeout, but the subsequent in-bounds pass was thrown away. The Gorillas salted then salted things away by going 6 of 6 at the line to finish 18 of 22.

“It was crazy the way they shot the ball so well. Every time we went to a zone, they found a guy and what did he do … that’s tough,” said Levinson. “They are specialists, they all know their role and boy do they let Frison do what he does.”

Frison held the previous Pitt record for assists in a game (13) and he came in at 5.8 per night. Redshirt senior guard R.J. Forney Jr. (20 points; 6 of 9 threes) and graduate Avery Taggert (19 points; 5 of 6 threes) were the recipient of many of his passes with 6-7 reserve Evan Jackson (14 points; 6 of 6 shooting) being productive in the paint.

UNK got a season-best 29 points from Arkansas graduate guard Allen Taylor (11 of 16 shooting; 3 of 7 threes) and 25 points from junior point guard Ja’Bryant Hill (seven buckets & nine freebies). Omaha senior Chase Thompson got into the shooting act by making 5 of 9 threes to score 19 with Texas sophomore DJ Jamerson at a season-best 10 points thanks to two triples and a dunk.

“That’s one of our worst nights at the line all year. We needed to settle in better there but as far as shooting the ball … 53 percent from the floor and 44 percent from three. We also had only six turnovers,” said Levinson. “On the offensive end we were probably okay but just not good enough on the defensive end to slow them down.

Finally for the Lopers, Hill had six assists, Thompson a team-best seven boards and Mullen redshirt freshman Clayton Moore getting a late steal and assist to make it a one possession game.

UNK hosts Missouri Southern on Saturday night. The Lions (11-14, 6-10) fell at Fort Hays State on Thursday, 70-59.