P.J. Rase has 31 points..6 from long range in Rio win.

[Focused]

January 6, 2009
Rio shoots down Point Park
Rio Grande---The University of Rio Grande RedStorm men's basketball team, ranked No. 21 in the latest NAIA Division II Top 25 rating, started early and finished strong and shooting down visiting Point Park, 91-71, on Tuesday evening at Newt Oliver Arena.

Junior guard P.J. Rase (Wheelersburg, OH) nailed his first four three-pointers of the game in jump-starting Rio to an 11-2 lead. Rase went 6-of-9 from long range for the game in scoring, a career-high, 31 points.

Rio Grande (13-5, 1-1 AMC) also received a near triple-double from senior forward Brandon Ivery (Columbus, OH). Ivery scored 12 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and dished out seven assists.

Rio was very balanced and shared the ball extremely well. The RedStorm had 24 assists in the game. Senior center Will Norwell (Cincinnati, OH) added nine points and six boards and freshman Bud Teer (Cleveland, OH) tossed in eight points and corralled 10 rebounds.

Rio shot 50 percent (31-of-62) from the field, including 52.6 percent (10-of-19) from three-point land.

Point Park (8-8, 0-2 AMC) had four players score in double figures led by Tony Townsend with 18 points, Townsend also pulled down nine rebounds. Devon Alexander added 16 points and Gary Houston and John Geiger chipped in 11 points a piece.

The win snapped a three-game losing skid to Point Park and was Rio's 10 win in 15 games in the all-time series.

Rio Grande head coach Ken French said this was a tremendous team win for his ball club. "This was a great team, that's what I told the guys in the locker room after the game," he said. "This was a program win. For everything that we've been through and I thought we played really hard at Cedarville, we just came on the short end of the stick."

"With us, going through everything we've been through and getting punched in the gut like that at Cedarville and lose a close game, you never know how we're going to come back," French added. "And that's been the thing that has separated us from being in the mix and falling by the wayside the last few years, the bounce-back games like this."

French commented on the hot hand of Rase. "He's been shooting it extremely well and when he plays that way and gets his feet squared up, he's only needs a small space to get his shot off and we all think it's going in," French said. "Right now, we're going to ride that horse."

Rio will step out of conference and host West Virginia Tech on Saturday at 4 p.m. Stretch Internet will have play-by-play coverage beginning at 3:40 p.m.

[alabama mike]

Way to go P.J.! Its a good thing his mom had him doing all those shooting drills.

[Focused]

Bama...... His Poppa taught him how to shoot, not mom or dad...

[RiverRatRay]

Way to go PJ!

[caglewis]

Congrats to P.J.!
That horrible Christmas auto accident that took Corey Taylor's life had to have hurt Rio Grande's team spirit and deeply affected all his teammates and friends.
How hard it must have been to go out and play and keep your head in the game after suffering such loss and grief.
Congrats on your basketball win, and my condolences on the much greater personal loss you all recently suffered.

[Focused]

Congrats to P.J.!
That horrible Christmas auto accident that took Corey Taylor's life had to have hurt Rio Grande's team spirit and deeply affected all his teammates and friends.
How hard it must have been to go out and play and keep your head in the game after suffering such loss and grief.
Congrats on your basketball win, and my condolences on the much greater personal loss you all recently suffered.

Amen!

[biggdowgg]

I heard Rase has a grandpa ,that taught him everything he knows about basketball?

[Focused]

I heard Rase has a grandpa ,that taught him everything he knows about basketball?

Uh oh....... The word has got out... You're one informed dowgg!

[biggdowgg]

Focused

you can only keep these things under you're hat for so long

[Steely Dan]

Any idea what happened to the Christman boy from Trimble? Don't see him on the roster this year and was just wondering........

[Focused]

Any idea what happened to the Christman boy from Trimble? Don't see him on the roster this year and was just wondering........

He elected not to enroll at Rio Grande this school year.