April 9, 2015

The St. Louis RiverSharks are headed to the MPBA’s inaugural championship game.

The RiverSharks ran away in an offense-heavy game to a 153-129 victory in the first MPBA Semi-Final game on Thursday at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum. They will play the winner of the Bloomington/Champaign Semi-Final in Friday’s championship.

St. Louis led wire-to-wire. Though St. Louis was noted this year for their frontcourt tandem of Keith DeWitt and Marcus Goode, they relied on their starting guards to do the heavy lifting. Harry Marshall had a team-high 32 points, and Kenny McGowen came off the bench for 31 points.

“Our guards played really well tonight, and we played well as a team,” said DeWitt, who was today named to the 1st-Team All-MPBA. DeWitt played just 20 minutes and scored six points.  “I was able to rest today. We just need to rest tonight physically and mentally to be ready for tomorrow.”

Gateway never came closer than a 13-point deficit in the second half. They still had standout performances from Tarvin Gaines and Jake Anderson. Gaines scored 43 points on 19-of-23 shooting with 10 rebounds, and Anderson dropped 42 points, including 13-of-14 free throws, and nine rebounds.