'Roos Fall Short to Mastodons, 65-60

The Kansas City men's basketball squad got behind in the game's first five minutes and trailed the rest of the night in a 65-60 home loss to Fort Wayne on Thursday night, despite a 19-point, 10-board performance by Fred Chatmon.
Kansas City (7-20, 4-9 SL) got within a point in the early part of the second half, but after an IPFW (11-16, 4-9 SL) run to put the advantage at nine with 8:57 to play, UMKC could get no closer than four the rest of the game.
The opening period saw Fort Wayne take a 7-6 lead on a tip-in by Mario Hines with 16:42 on the clock, and never trail again. The 'Dons built their margin to seven at the 12:41 mark on a free throw by leading scorer Frank Gaines, but the 'Roos battled back to get within three on multiple occasions thanks to Estan Tyler and Chatmon. A free throw by Trinity Hall cut it to only two, but Gaines drilled a three on the next possession, and both teams followed with a four-minute scoring drought.
IPFW pushed its lead to 10 with 29 seconds remaining in the period, but a jumper at the buzzer by Thomas Staton cut the score to 34-26 at the half.
UMKC made only one three in the half, and hit only 5-of-12 from the line, while IPFW hit 3-of-6 from beyond the arc and 9-of-12 from the charity stripe, proving to be the difference.
The 'Roos we paced by Tyler with seven, while Hines led the 'Dons with eight at the half.
Fort Wayne scored the first two buckets of the second stanza to make it a 12 point game, their largest advantage of the night. UMKC responded with a 13-2 run though, sparked by eight points from Nelson Kirksey in a span of only 1:26 to make it a 40-39 deficit with 15:47 to play.
The 'Roos couldn't quite get over the hump though, and at the 11:20 mark the 'Dons started their own rally (6-0) to make it a nine-point game in the next two minutes. Kansas City cut it to four twice, but turnovers and missed three-pointers followed each time as IPFW salted it away at the foul line.
The 'Dons shot 52.4 percent in the second half, overcoming an 18-12 rebound edge for the 'Roos. Both squads turned it over nine times in the period, but UMKC hit only 3-of-15 threes in the half. Chatmon scored 14 of his 19 in the final stanza, picking up six offensive boards. Inside the three point line, Kansas City was actually 11-of-16 (68.8 percent) in the final half.
Tyler finished with 15 points for UMKC, while Chatmon's double-double was his fourth of the year. Gaines led the 'Dons with 16 points while Hines tallied 11 and Joe Reed had 10.
Kansas City will host Oakland on Saturday night at 6:15 p.m. The UMKC seniors will be honored and the game will be televised nationally on Fox College Sports, locally on KSMO.