For the first time on Friday night, Missouri Military Academy owned the keys of the game.

MMA vs Chamois Photo Gallery

MMA had its losing streak extended to 12 games with a 46-40 loss to Chamois but played to a tight margin that saw the Colonels leading 27-26 going into the fourth quarter. Chamois hit 10-for-18 free throws in the fourth quarter and received 19 of Dawson Brandt’s game-high 22 points in the second half.

Head coach Roger Siwak said there are moments down the stretch to pick a part, of course, as the Colonels missed free throws and didn’t properly block out on a free throw while on defense but was pleased with how hard and how competitive his team played. MMA (1-12) lost to Chamois (8-9) already this season 56-33 in the Belle tournament after allowing Chamois to hurt them with 3-pointers in the second half but didn’t allow that to happen this time with one Pirate 3-pointer.

"Obviously, you want to win, but I felt like our guys played hard," Siwak said. "Defensively, we did what we wanted to do. We tried something tonight that we like. We let our players write the keys of the game and gave them ownership in the keys. They went in the locker room without, wrote the keys, did a great job and they owned it."

Siwak said the pregame freedom wasn’t just because MMA had already seen Chamois this season. He thought it was helpful to his players that they take ownership in what they needed to do by brainstorming strategy, writing them on the board and discussing them without coaches in the room. 

Chamois had one perimeter shot fall in the first quarter but couldn’t do any more damage from out there, forcing them to adjust by attacking inside with Brandt for the most part. About every Pirate pass to a possible was deflected or stolen.

"We've been working really hard on closing out better with high hands," Siwak said, "We've also been talking about active hands on defense for deflections."

Siwak said MMA had to put Chamois at the line late in the game after the Pirates took a 36-35 lead with 1:27 left in the game. Brandt had nine points in the fourth quarter while Caleb Keilholz was 6-for-6 on free throws in the fourth to finish with 10 points. 

“This time, we defended better,” Siwak said. “We also gave up some easy passes at the block a few times, where we helped up and they put a guy down there. We talked about helping up and how to rotate. We got to work on that rotation.”

Chamois needed plenty of help to defend 6-for-6 Rwandan Gihana Favour Nziza as he finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds to record a double-double and also was tough on defense with four blocks. Nziza picked up about a handful of offensive rebounds just with a small hop that captured the ball with his long arms.

Nziza scored all seven Colonel points in the first quarter and had nine points and eight rebounds in the first half. When Chamois took the lead with 1:27 left, however, Nziza fouled out to take away a big defensive barrier.

“We’re teaching him to go straight up, and he’s doing better at it. Sometimes, still, he leans in and gets fouled,” Siwak said. “When he goes straight up, it’s really hard (for opponents) because he’s active and his hands are high. Offensively, we want to keep him down near the block. Our guys made some good passes to him.”

Nziza is one of the players Siwak has noticed has made a lot of progress after playing junior varsity last season. He would like to see the shooting improve so offense can catch up with defensive effort.

Two more that have shown progress and were key to MMA on Friday were bench players Ky-mani Erskine and Mateo Eaton. Erskine finished with eight points, including two 3-point plays after a pair of many offensive rebounds collected by the Colonels. Eaton had two buckets in the fourth quarter as part of seven points that kept MMA within striking distance for moments like when Josh McCart hit a 3-pointer to make 39-38 Chamois with 19.3 seconds left.

“Erskine has improved so much for us,” Siwak said. “He’s become a smart player. Basketball is probably more mental than physical, and he’s grown mentally.”

Having the Colonels take ownership of their play should help as they continue to weather a down time of the season, Siwak said. 

“I’m proud of my guys,” Siwak said. “They played to win, and they played hard.”