State Fair men’s basketball lost its 10th straight game Tuesday, 84-72, to the Iowa Western Community College Reivers.
As the losses pile up for the Roadrunners, freshman guard Russell Baker said the most disappointing part of the winless streak is that the team looks worse than they feel.
“We’ve come together a lot from the beginning of the year,” Baker said. “We play hard. We still can’t seem to get a win. It’s always the little things like, boxing out. We miss three box outs and that’s six points. We miss a couple free throws and that’s 10 points, and at the end of the game we can’t get those back.”
Baker led the Roadrunners with 18 points, Corey Mendez had 16 on four 3-pointers, Amir Smith scored 14 and Tyrone Gibbs added 13 points.
Donavan Walker and De’Quon Lake scored a game-high 22 points each for Iowa Western.
The Reivers led by as many as 20 points, but SFCC cut the lead to 78-70 with less than 2 minutes to play.
After Iowa Central opened the game with a 10-2 run, State Fair briefly swung the lead its way, 15-12, with a run capped by Gibbs’ fast-break bucket.
Mendez, who was 4-for-11 from beyond the arc, cut the deficit to 29-26 with a three 5 minutes before halftime. After shooting 57 percent from three in the first half, State Fair went 2-for-12 from long range.
State Fair (11-16) finishes the regular season against Mineral Area College 7 p.m. Saturday at Bob Sechrest Fieldhouse in Park Hills.
For the Roadrunners, Region 16 tournament play begins 3 p.m. Friday, March 3 against Moberly at Lincoln University in Jefferson City.
