Rio men cruise past St. Mary of-the-Woods

Rio Grande Sports Information
SAINT MARY OF THE WOODS, Ind. – The University of Rio Grande built an 18-point halftime advantage and never looked back, cruising to a 76-58 triumph over St. Mary of the Woods College, Saturday afternoon, in River States Conference men’s basketball action at Hamilton Arena.
The RedStorm won for the 12th time in their last 13 outings, improving to 13-4 overall and 7-0 against conference foes.
The host Pomeroys slipped to 6-11 overall and 1-6 in the RSC with the loss.
Rio Grande trailed just once in the contest – 2-0 after a jumper by SMWC’s JR Lumsden just 38 seconds into the game – and took the lead for good when junior Miki Tadic (Hilversum, The Netherlands) canned one of the RedStorm’s 12 three-pointers. point goals on the day just under a minute later.
It was still a two-possession game, 21-15, after a bucket by The Woods’ Tarik Dixon with 8:01 left before halftime, but the RedStorm closed the period on a 21-9 run to build their commanding lead at the intermission and the rout was on.
A conventional three-point play by Lumsden just 21 seconds into the second half got the hosts within 15 points, but they got no closer the rest of the way.
Rio Grande’s largest lead of the afternoon came with 3:47 remaining, when a bucket by senior Shiloah Blevins (South Webster, OH) produced a 26-point advantage, 72-46.
Tadic scored a game-high 20 points and connected on four three-point goals to surpass the 200 mark for his RedStorm career.
Freshman Kaden Warner (Cincinnati, OH) added 19 points of his own and shared game-high honors with Tadic as both handed out five assists.
Rio, which finished 31-for-69 overall (44.9%) and 12-for-29 from beyond the three-point arc (41.4%), was also the beneficiary of 10 points from freshman Trent Hundley (Mount Orab, OH) and a career-high-tying 11 rebounds from sophomore Exauce Manissa (Point Noire, The Congo).
The RedStorm also outrebounded their hosts, 44-35.
Dixon led SMWC with 19 points and three assists, while Lumsden had 11 points and a team-best five rebounds.
Keith Germain, who was averaging a team-high 15.6 points and 8.1 rebounds entering the contest, was limited to just nine minutes of playing time due to two quick first half fouls and a subsequent leg injury in the second half.
He finished with two points, three rebounds, a pair of steals and two blocked shots in his limited appearance.
The Pomeroys went 22-for-59 from the floor overall (37.3%), while hitting just five of their 17 three-point attempts (29.4%) and going only 9-for-14 at the free throw line (64.3%).
Rio Grande will look to keep its perfect league mark intact when it travels to Midway (Ky.) University on Tuesday night.
Tipoff is set for 7:30 pm at Marshall Gymnasium.