Huskies Jump Out Early, 'Roos Never Recover In 66-45 Loss

Houston Baptist jumped out to a 14-0 lead on Wednesday night and Kansas City men's basketball never recovered in a 66-45 loss on the road.

The 'Roos (6-19) went into the first media timeout in a 14-0 hole, even after two called timeouts by head coach Matt Brown. The 'Roos had more turnovers than shot attempts, and failed to record a rebound until the 14:40 mark.

Nate Rogers tried to keep Kansas City in the game, scoring 10 of the first 14 points, but the 'Roos could never cut the Houston Baptist (8-14) advantage to less than nine the rest of the game.

With 8:16 on the clock, a Rogers three put the score to 25-16, but Kansas City failed to hit a field goal until the 3:01 mark and was outscored 12-4 during a run that put HBU up by as many as 18 with 1:12 remaining. The Huskies went into the break with a 37-21 lead.

The 'Roos shot 35 percent and made 11 turnovers in the half, while HBU hit 50 percent and had an 18-10 advantage on the glass. Rogers led UMKC with 11, while Anthony Hill went 4-of-5 from three-point land and paced the Huskies with 12.

The second stanza was much closer, and very even statistically, but Kansas City never got the margin into single digits. HBU answered every UMKC run, and went up by as many as 23 in the final two minutes.

It was the fifth straight loss for Kansas City, and the third in a row by at least 20 points.

The 'Roos shot 31.8 percent for the game, while Houston Baptist hit for 47.4 percent. The Huskies finished with a 39-31 rebound edge and 19 turnovers, but Kansas City had 22 miscues. The Huskies also scored 17 points on 12 offensive rebounds.

UMKC was led by Trinity Hall with his second straight double-double, tallying a team-high 13 points and a career-best 11 rebounds. It was the third double-double of his career. Rogers finished the night with 11 points. Art Bernardi tallied 15 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Huskies.

Kansas City returns home for the next three games, starting with South Dakota on Saturday at 5:15 p.m. The contest will be televised on KSMO in Kansas City.