WEST PLAINS, Mo. — The first half of the season hasn’t been an easy one for the Missouri State University-West Plains Grizzly Basketball team, but they’ve made significant strides in the past six weeks against some of the nation’s top teams and are entering the winter break on a hopeful note.
“We’ve been playing a lot better. I’m encouraged with where we are,” Grizzly Basketball Head Coach Chris Popp said.
“After starting with a very tough schedule, we finished 4-2 in our last six games going into the break. The goal is to maintain our growth in the second half of the season,” he added.
The Grizzlies (7-9) finished the fall portion of their season this past weekend by going 1-1 at the Hy-Vee Classic hosted by No. 8 Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa.
On Friday, the Grizzlies fell to the hosting Warriors 119-81, but they roared back Saturday to defeat the Lake Region State College Royals from Devils Lake, North Dakota, 100-83.
When the Grizzlies return from winter break, they will host the annual Hirsch Feed & Farm Supply Classic Jan. 3-4 in Joe Paul Evans Arena at the West Plains Civic Center. They will face Southwest Tennessee Community College at 7 p.m. Friday and the Warriors at 7 p.m. Saturday for a rematch.
The tournament also will feature Arkansas Baptist College from Little Rock. The Buffaloes will face the Warriors at 2:30 p.m. Friday and Southwest Tennessee at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
In between the two tournament games each day, two area high schools will play.
The West Plains High School Zizzer boys team will face Marshfield at 5 p.m. Friday, and the No. 1 state ranked Dora High School Falcons will play Billings at 5 p.m. Saturday.
“It’s going to be a great weekend of basketball, a full weekend with a lot of high level games,” Heady Grizzly Coach Chris Popp said.
The tournament will begin a stretch of much needed home games for the Grizzlies. “We will play five of our first six games after the break at home,” Popp said. “Hopefully, that will give us momentum as we head into the region games.”