Turnovers were the story of the day for Calvary as the Warriors allowed Kansas Christian to cause 30 of them during a 89-75 loss to the Falcons at The Pyramid Athletic Center on Saturday afternoon. “I don’t care who you play, when you allow the other team 30 more chances you are going to lose,” Calvary Head Coach Matt Sanders said. “We played well defensively in the half court, but we let them get too many easy layups.”
The Warriors came into the game after a tough week. The team was looking to gain some of their earlier momentum against the #6 NCCAA II team in the country. The Warriors came out and got down fast as the game started. They turned it over a number of times from the start and the score was quickly 7-17. Braydon Unruh and Ques Harris got in foul trouble during the first half. Zeb Green had to play a lot of minutes and got tired at the end of the half. Because of the adversity, Kansas Christian went into the locker room up by 22 points at the half.
Calvary came out as the second half started and put their heads down, played together, and never quit. They got the 22 point deficit down to 11 several times but never managed to get it closer. “Zeb played well,” stated Sanders. “Defensively he caused issues. He struggled to finish in the first half, but he also caused their big guy to get in foul trouble. Braydon and Ques played well. Tim Marchbanks was the story of the game for us. He was solid and played as a junior should. Jay handled their pressure well. We have got to find a way to get him shots.”
Calvary has a quick turnaround before a big game Tuesday in Manhattan. “We do a good job with defensive FG percentage and if we can figure out how to stop turning the ball over we would be much improved said Sanders.”
“I was proud of our effort,” said guard Braydon Unruh. “I thought our execution on offense was pretty good. Our half-court defense was very good. To be honest I thought that might have been our best game of the year in every area except turnovers. A lot of that is on me. I was trying to force passes instead of looking for the simple play.”
“Overall we played well tonight against a top ten program minus the turnovers,” Coach Sanders said. “We just need to learn from this and get ready for another game Tuesday.” Next up, the Warriors will be back in action on Tuesday as the team travels to Manhattan, Kansas for a matchup against conference opponent Manhattan Christian College.
