Alemadi's 3 Completes Comeback Victory for M State
The M State Men’s Basketball team overcame a 17-point second half deficit to post a thrilling 83-79 victory over Ridgewater Community College on Wednesday night in Fergus Falls. Belind Alemadi’s 3-point field goal with ten seconds remaining broke a 79-79 tie.
The M State Men's Basketball team overcame a 17-point second half deficit to post a thrilling 83-79 victory over Ridgewater Community College on Wednesday night in Fergus Falls. Belind Alemadi's 3-point field goal with ten seconds remaining broke a 79-79 tie. A missed 3 by the Warriors and a foul on the rebound put Tyson McArthur on the line where he made one of two free throws to put the final margin of victory at 4 points.
There were 8 ties in the first half, along with 6 lead changes. Trailing 26-24, the Warriors went on an 11 point run to establish a 35-26 lead. They finished the half on a 23-8 run, taking a 47-34 halftime lead. They increased their lead to 51-34 early in the second half, but M State responded by going on a 10 point run to close the gap to 7. The Spartans trailed 75-68 but went on a 5-point run to cut the lead to two points. They caught the Warriors at 77-77 on a pair of Mikele Kambalo free throws with just over two minutes remaining and took a 79-77 lead on a drive to the basket by Alemadi with 1:32 on the clock. Ridgewater tied the game with 30 seconds left, setting up the game winning opportunity for Alemadi, who thrilled the Spartan fans with his successful 3-pointer.
Kambalo led the Spartans with 23 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. McArthur added 20 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Alemadi finished with 17 points and Javin Tinall added 12 points and 5 boards off the bench. Khamani Steckler was impressive on the boards with 11 rebounds, 5 of them coming on the offensive end. He also had 3 assists to go along with 9 points.
Ridgewater shot 50.8% (31-61) for the game and M State made 47.9% (34-71) of their shots from the floor. The Spartans won the rebounding battle 36-32, pulling down 14 offensive boards. M State had only 12 turnovers and Ridgewater turned the ball over 14 times on the night.
The win improves the Spartans record to 11-7 overall and 3-2 in the MCAC South. They will play at Rochester on Saturday afternoon.
Ridgewater falls to 9-8 overall and 2-3 in the MCAC South.