Fabulous four minutes provides glimpse in loss

PUEBLO- For four minutes Friday night, the light bulb went on for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs men's basketball team. The offense moved, the defense stopped and the planets aligned as the Mountain Lions, for a while, firmly grasped the concepts that won coach Doug Schakel over 500 games and a spot in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame.

Unfortunately, basketball games are 40 minutes long.

Patrick Hannaway scored 16 points but that wasn't enough to overcome UCCS' 27.8 percent shooting in a 68-43 loss to the Colorado State-Pueblo Thunderwolves at Massari Arena.

But for four fabulous minutes, both the Mountain Lions and their fans saw exactly what Schakel has been talking about.

The rally started with the Mountain Lions trailing 26-11 with four minutes remaining in the first half. Bly McGuire took an inlet pass, established position in the high post and found Patrick Hannaway cutting back door for the layup. After UCCS forced a turnover, Hannaway turned a pair of offensive rebounds into a foul. He converted the free throws to make the score 26-15.

On CSU-Pueblo's next possession, Hannaway drew a charge. Thirteen seconds later, Dan Deveau broke free using a Todd Crist screen and knocked down a short jumper. A Crist rebound on the other end began a coast-to-coast journey for a layup by P.J. Forrest that timed the deficit to seven.

The Thunderwolves converted a pair of free throws before Hannaway converted another offensive rebound at the 1:20 mark. Another Thunderwolves turnover later, Hannaway drove around a McGuire screen for another layup. McGuire added a pair of free throws with three second left to end the half with UCCS trailing just 28-25.

"Those four minutes, that's basically what we're trying to be," said Crist, who grabbed five rebounds and set strong screens. "That was coach Schakel's vision right there of what he wants us to be. We got stops and made buckets and we took it one possession at a time. We were crashing the offensive glass, we were going at it.”

Jeff McCall led CSU-Pueblo (7-11, 3-7 RMAC) with 14 points.

So what will it take to turn Friday's four minutes into 40?

"(We need) more time with coach Schakel," said Crist. "We've only had 11 days with coach and 11 days in is system. We've got to break the habit of what we've been in and come into what he wants us to do.

"We're progressing by leaps and bounds. Every day there's improvement and hopefully we'll get there pretty soon."