Missouri Southern stays focused after long break

JOPLIN, M0. – Missouri Southern hosts Pittsburg State for a rivalry game on Saturday. It’s the first meeting between the two teams this season.

The Lions are 7-and-4 to start the year, while the Gorillas are 4-and-10. Missouri Southern has played pretty well lately, winning five of their last six games. They’ll have to shake some rust off this weekend. Saturday’s game will be the first game for Southern since December 18th due to the holiday break and then COVID issues. Southern has been doing as much as possible in the interim.

“We’ve shortened practices. We’ve done a lot of individual work on top of that.” says Missouri Southern head coach Jeff Boschee. “At the same time, when we’ve done our hour, hour and fifteen of work, we’ve really gotten after it. We’re trying to get back into shape with playing.”

The Lions will keep a close eye on Bobby Arthur-Williams Jr. He’s been hot for the Gorillas since returning from injury.

“I think they pose a lot of mismatch issues especially with getting Williams back,” Boschee says. “He’s just so big. He can play out on the perimeter, he can play inside. He really hurt us at their place last year.”

Pittsburg State has depth and talent, so Boschee is looking for his team to step up on defense.

“We have to make sure we do our part of boxing out and limiting them to one shot and not give them extra opportunities,” Boschee says.

Missouri Southern and Pittsburg State hit the floor at 3:30 pm on Saturday.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *