Box Score LOCATION: Defiance, Ohio (Defiance College, HCAC Championship)
THE BASICS:
The Mount St. Joseph men's basketball team clinched the program's first ever trip to the NCAA DIII Basketball Tournament with a thrilling 93-88 victory again Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology on Sunday afternoon. The Mount rallied from down 12 with 3:28 to play before taking a two point lead in the closing minute. Rose-Hulman tied the game on a layup with three seconds remaining to force overtime.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The two team scrapped in the first half, with the Fightin' Engineers taking the largest lead of the half when Jimmy Miller hit a jump shot with 4:40 to play in half to extend the lead to 10 points. A Travis Combs 3-pointer narrowed the Rose-Hulman lead to 40-34 which is how the half would end.
Combs led the Lions with 11 first-half points while Rose-Hulman's Matt Loesing dropped in 21 first-half points.
The Lions closed to gap to two points with two quick baskets to open the half, but could not take the lead. The Lions found themselves down 12 points with 3:28 to play when Head Coach Toby Carrigan dialed up the full-court pressure. In a 31-second spurt the Lions sunk three-3-point shots to cut the lead to three points.
A Jordan Henry 3-pointer gave the Lions its first lead of the game with 31 seconds left in regulation at 81-79. Dillon Reynolds hit the game-tying layup to force overtime for the Fightin' Engineers with just 3 seconds to play. A desperation half-court heave for the Lions was off the mark.
Senior Combs scored six point in overtime and Andrew Finley made one of two free throws in the final seconds to give the Lions the five-point victory.
STANDOUTS
Combs led the Lions with 26 points and seven rebounds while senior Femi Thompson dropped in 18 points. Finley and Joel Scudder each had four steals. Henry had 10 points off the bench. Loesing led all scorers in the game with 42.
Thompson and Scudder earned All-HCAC Tournament Team honors and Combs was named tournament Most Valuable Player.
UP NEXT
The Lions wait for the NCAA tournament selection committee to tell them where they will play next. That happens Monday and the first round takes place Thursday and Friday.
