ACC men battled through injuries Wednesday night against Pratt Community College in a tough 72-61 loss.
Both Bryce Schippers and DeAndrae Barnatte were out of the contest with ankle injuries from Monday’s game against Southwestern. Despite the absences, the Red Devils held close until the end.
The contest started off in favor of the Beavers. They came out with a 10-0 start before ACC started to work back the deficit. Both teams fought hard in the first half, though the Beavers held on to a close lead until the buzzer, 29-24.
Alex Keiswetter hit down low for two to start the second half, edging Pratt’s lead to only three points. It was back and forth from the point forward.
Ricky Roberts and Diallo Wesley had some key fast break points, keeping ACC neck and neck with Pratt, which maintained a lead between three and five points most of the evening.
Forward Andrew Rountree went down with 11:27 left in the half after a hard blocking foul on a drive. He hit the court clutching his side in pain. He remained in the game for a few more minutes before being taken out due to pain.
“I’m not sure what happened with Andrew,” Coach Andy Shaw said after the game, “I saw that he had hurt his ribs, but that’s all I really know.”
With one more injury added to the list, ACC began to lose its foothold on the game. Pratt’s Aaron Abram came out big in the second half, with eight quick points to give it a 49-38 lead with 8:30 left in the contest.
With some additional three-pointers from Pratt’s Sean Michaelson and Ralph Abraham, the Beavers was up by as many as 17 points. The fouling began by ACC with two minutes to spare in the half. They cut the Beaver’s lead to 11 before the buzzer sounded.
“It was a really tough game tonight, our guys fought hard,” Shaw said. “We really missed Bryce and DeAndrae’s shooting game on the court.”
As a team, ACC shot 24 of 63 from the field (38 percent), 4 of 17 from 3-point range (23.5 percent), and struggled from the foul line with nine of 20 (45 percent).
Roberts led the team with 13 points, followed by guard Cameron Blue with 11 points. Blue also pulled down 12 rebounds, Keiswetter had 11.
The Red Devils will go against Hesston College at 4 p.m. on Saturday at home. Shaw said he hopes to see his players healed by the time the next game comes around.
Pratt (29-43—72)
ACC (24-37—61)
Pratt (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Abram 6-0-1-12, Flynn 3/1-4-2-13, Rogers 3/1-0-0-9, Michaelson 0/1-0-3-3, Taylor 1-0-3-2, Abraham 3/1-1-3-10, Roberts 6-4-1-16, Stivrins 2-3-3-7, Hellman 0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 24/4-12-18-72.
ACC (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Rountree 4-0-4-8, Wesley 2/2-0-1-10, Roberts 4-5-2-13, Fountain 1-1-3-3, Uno 2/1-2-7, Keiswetter 2-1-3-5, Blue 3/1-2-3-11, Larson 2-0-2-4. TOTALS: 20/4-9-20-61.
Injuries mount for Red Devils
