By TRAVIS METCALF
TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS — Northeastern State University men’s basketball coach Larry Gipson said he knew freshman J.C. Snead would be great shooter for the RiverHawks, but started out slow for NSU during the first half of the season.
Monday night, however Snead lit up the scoreboard, leading the RiverHawks with 18 points including having a perfect night from the floor, going 6-for-6 and 3-of-4 from the free-throw line. He was one of five double-figure scorers for the RiverHawks as NSU bombed Rhema Bible College, 104-59.
Snead led the RiverHawks with 18 points.
This was the first time the RiverHawks had scored over 100 points since Nov. 15, 2005. NSU beat Rhema that day too, 100-41.
“He spent the first semester not shooting the ball well, which is not uncommon,” Gipson said. “He’s obviously comfortable now. I think he can help us a lot. He is capable of putting a lot of points on the board.”
Gipson later joked a little bit with Snead about his perfect day being ruined by a missed free throw.
“I was 14-for-14 from the field one time,” Gipson told Snead. “But I did like you. I screwed up and missed a free throw.”
He wasn’t the only one going perfect from the field for the RiverHawks. Ja’Mal Stewart dominated inside for the RiverHawks, going 5-for-5 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free-throw line. He finished with 15 points.
“Ja’Mal’s a guy who we don’t look to to be a big scorer but he’s athletic, he’s strong, he’s a really good rebounder and he understands the game well,” Gipson said. “He had a size advantage (Monday night) and he took advantage of that size advantage.”
Stewart led the RiverHawks in rebounds with eight.
Stewart put the RiverHawks on the board, answering a 3-pointer by Rhema Bible to start the game, making the score 3-2 Rhema. That was the last time the RiverHawks trailed.
A 3-pointer by Snead eventually put the RiverHawks ahead 20-10 and NSU extended that lead to 24-12, the biggest lead of the half for the RiverHawks.
“It’s a good win for us,” Snead said. “I just tried to do my job, screen and move, pretty much just run the offense. Coach talked to me one day last semester about catching and shooting, being ready to shoot.”
The RiverHawks led at halftime, 39-29, but everybody could sense that the rout was on. Ben Rovenstine led off the second half with a 3-pointer to give the RiverHawks a 42-29 lead. Aaron Arango followed that up with a three of is own to give NSU a 45-30 lead.
NSU started the second half scoring 30 of the half’s first 34 points as the RiverHawks built a 69-34 lead with 12:58 to go in the half.
With NSU leading 99-57, the crowd roared with approval after Jessie Scroggins’ layup with 1:55 allowed the RiverHawks to top the century mark, 101-57.
The RiverHawks (5-10) have now won two games in a row by fairly comfortable margins. NSU also beat Abilene Christian on Saturday, 72-50.
“If you look at our 10 losses, we lost eight times to teams that were ranked when we played them,” Gipson said. “We’ve just played a really strong schedule. It’s been difficult to get any momentum going. I think if we had a couple of wins like this in the first few games, maybe the outcome would be different.”
Also scoring for the RiverHawks were Ricky Branham with 15, Marlon Burnett 13, Arango 10, Rovenstine nine on 3-of-3 from the 3-point arc, Jessie Scroggins eight, Jace Sharp seven, Jason Jones six and Ralph Monday three.
Gabe White led Rhema Bible with 15 points.
NSU will try and stretch its winning streak to three games on Wednesday when the RiverHawks take on Southwestern Oklahoma State at Jack Dobbins Field House. The women’s team will take the floor first at 6 p.m., followed by the men’s team.
