SIOUX FALLS, SD – The Kansas City Roos men’s basketball team broke its 8-year conference tournament losing streak. The Roos beat the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles 73-56 in the first round of the Summit League Tournament.
The last time the Roos won a conference tournament game was the first round of the 2017 Western Athletic Conference tournament against the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley.
Wednesday’s match was a low scoring game, but the defense from Kansas City was nothing short of electric. The Roos were able to force the Golden Eagles to commit nine turnovers in the first half, and held graduate guard Issac McBride to 46% shooting throughout the game.
“Survive and advance is a beautiful cliché,” said head coach Marvin Menzies. “I don’t care if we won by one, five, ten, 15 points, it doesn’t matter. It’s all about who has the most points at the end of the game.”
Senior guard Jamar Brown was a man amongst boys in the first half of the game. He scored 19 points in the first half and had 5 three-pointers. He finished with 24 points.
With the score being tied at 15 with 9:15 remaining in the first half, Brown scored 14 straight points for Kansas City to end the half.
“My teammates believe in me and how hard I work,” said Brown. “They trust me to take the shot whenever I am open, and I trust them to do the same.”
Senior guard Cameron Faas had a great second half performance. After scoring only 2 points in the first half, he finished the game with 15 points and shot 50% from the field. He thanked Jamar Brown for his play after halftime.
“When Jamar is hitting shots at that level, he draws a lot of attention,” said Faas. “We just kept playing through him, and the offense opened up for us.”
Sophomore guard Jayson Petty had a great second half game as well. After scoring only 2 points in the first half, he finished the game with 16 and an impressive 7 rebounds.
Coach Menzies also credited the team for the 26 second chance points. He was very pleased with the improvement in that factor of the game.
“At the end of the day, it’s basketball,” said Menzies. “Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t. Fortunately for us, they went in on the day we needed them to.”
Next, the Roos will take on the Omaha Mavericks in the Summit League Basketball Championships. The game will be played on Thursday, March 6 at 6 p.m. Games can be listened to for free on the Roo TV YouTube channel or streamed on the Summit League Network.
Tickets for the tournament games can be found at this link.
