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University of Central Oklahoma Athletics

The Official Site of Central Oklahoma University Athletics Central Oklahoma Athletics
Jordan Hemphill
68
Central Missouri UCM 20-10
72
Winner Central Oklahoma UCO 20-9
Central Missouri UCM
20-10
68
Final
72
Central Oklahoma UCO
20-9
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Central Missouri UCM 20 48 68
Central Oklahoma UCO 30 42 72

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | Chris Brannick

UCO Advances to MIAA Semifinals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The University of Central Oklahoma men's basketball team is returning to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association postseason tournament semifinals after a 72-68 win over Central Missouri Friday night at Municipal Auditorium.
 
The Bronchos led wire-to-wire in the quarterfinal win, its first since 2014 and the first for third-year head coach Tom Hankins.
 
"I just want to say how proud I am of this team," Hankins said. "This is my first win in Kansas City and it's all because of how hard these kids worked. There were times tonight that our shots weren't falling, and we didn't get to play much of our bench, but they kept fighting and finding a way to win and we did. I'm really proud of them."
 
Central Oklahoma scored zero bench points in Friday's win. It didn't need them. Freshman Jordan Hemphill led the way with a spectacular performance in his MIAA tourney debut, scoring a team-high 20 points. He was 6-for-7 from the floor, sank a huge second-half 3-pointer as part of a 7-0 run he put on by himself, and also went 7 of 10 from the free-throw line.
 
"We knew he was going to be a really good player," Hankins said. "We didn't know we would need him so much now, but he's just so talented. The more he plays the better he gets. He was awesome tonight."
 
UCO's four other starters rounded out the scoring. Corbin Byford was huge, scoring 15 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. He also had one monster block, chasing down a fastbreak layup to stall an early Central Missouri run.
 
Jake Hammond also scored 15 points, had four rebounds, and had six blocks. His six blocks move him to 60 on the season, which is fourth-most in school history for one season. He also has 100 blocks in his two-year career at Central, also fourth-most in school history for a career. Marquis Johnson scored 12 points and Marqueese Grayson scored 10. Both hit a pair of 3-pointers.
 
UCO got off to a hot start in the first half, making its first four shots from the floor. It spread the wealth too.
 
Hammond made a layup on the game's opening possession, Hemphill sank a jumper on the next possession, Johnson made it three in a row with a jumper, and Grayson made it four-straight with a 3-pointer. UCO had a 9-2 lead in just two minutes.
 
The Bronchos kept it up, starting 7-for-10 from the floor, including a pair of 3-pointers and two free-throws in the first nine minutes to go up 18-6. The last bucket on that run, a Hemphill layup forced a Central Missouri timeout.
 
The Bronchos cooled a bit in the middle of the first half, but kept up the pressure on defense. Though Central Missouri went on a 7-0 lead, UCO put an end to it with back-to-back threes from Johnson to go up 26-13 with just over two minutes to play.
 
Hammond threw down an emphatic dunk on an alley-oop from Byford as the Bronchos broke a Central Missouri press. Then Hammond ended the first half with a big rejection – his third of the half – on defense to keep the Bronchos up 30-20 at the break.
 
Central Missouri got as close as five early in the second half. Then Hemphill took over. He hit his only 3-pointer with 11:21 to play to put the Bronchos up by 10, 43-33. Two possessions later, he knocked down a jumper, and then earned a fastbreak layup and-1 to stretch the Broncho lead to 15 points.
 
Hammond had another press-breaking alley-oop slam in the second half. That gave UCO a 60-50 lead with under two minutes to play. Central Missouri's 3-pointer with one second left made it a four-point game, the closest the score was since the 16:54 mark in the first half.
 
The Bronchos will now face No. 1-seeded Northwest Missouri State in the quarterfinals. That game is scheduled for Saturday at 8:15 p.m. in Municipal Auditorium.
 
 
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