Thorough domination: Rebels eclipse Morgan State 92-55

This game was not competitive, the opposing team never had a lead and it seemed to be over by the end of the first half. We are a long way and much improved from the exhibition against Washburn. Fantastic defense let to an offensive slaughter, as well as smart takes leading to easier makes.

As expected in a 30+ point blowout, many players played very well tonight.

Rebel Reign MVP – Mike Moser

The man is a total beast. Every game sees improvement, and if there were fantasy college basketball you’d want him on your team. His stat line speaks for itself: 23 points on 10-19 from the field, 3-4 from the free throw stripe, 17 total rebounds including 6 offensive, 6 assists, 5 steals in 33 minutes of play.

Rebel Reign Co-MVP – Chace Stanback

Nice effort by Stanback and glad to see him back in a primary scoring roll. His stat line was equally impressive, in 27 minutes he racked up 20 points on 7-13 from the field, 5-8 from three, 7 rebound, 3, assists, 3 steals, 1 block, and only 1 foul and 0 turnovers! That’s efficient as hell – great job Chace!

Other double digit scores included Oscar Bellfield with 12 and Anthony Marshall with 13. The team shot very well, 52% from the field and 52% from three. The bench provided a nice cushion with 23 points.

The beautiful thing about this team is that so many people can “go-off” and make this team win. For example, an early season stalwart of scoring, Justin Hawkins, didn’t have his shot going tonight, but we still blew them out. Our centers / big men Thomas, Massamba, and Lopez, didn’t have fantastic games either, but we still blew them out.

The running offense is gelling, people are giving the team effort, and even regularly seeing the deep bench players is becoming an added bonus.

One difference from the previous contests – no one player from the opposing team was having a career night. I was unsure what Coach Rice’s philosophy was in those games, perhaps it was ‘let him play well and shut everyone else down, he can’t beat us by himself’ similar to how a lot of NBA teams play Kobe.

As anticipated, with our improved three-point-shooting a lot of inside opportunities have opened up and our team has a much easier time scoring the ball. Even though his stat line was low, credit must go to Kendall Wallace for hitting for hitting an important three when it appeared Morgan State’s 2-3 zone was effective.

Now, let’s not declare ourselves champions of the league yet – there’s still a ton of basketball to play and technically – we haven’t played any high caliber teams yet. On the near horizon though – better teams are coming, quickly. After Cal Poly, we’ll meet the USC Trojans who are respectable, and then its highly likely we’ll play North Carolina who everyone has as the best team in college basketball – a team who’s roster is full of players happy to have ducked the NBA lockout. In an interesting event, Cal Poly actually beat USC in the lowest scoring game you're likely to hear of, 42-36 at USC. 

This turned out to be a very fun contest, 8 dunks and scoring in the 90’s. Great to see the Rebels shooting the three well, and putting together consecutive high scoring affairs. Fantastic work and congrats to Coach Rice and the new-look Rebels.