OKLAHOMA CITY, OK: The Texas Wesleyan University men's basketball team (15-15) suffered an 86-84 loss in double overtime at the hands of the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma (8-18) at the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament on Wednesday.
If the Rams had an Achilles heel this season it was their free throw shooting. In the regular season, the Rams rated at the bottom of the SAC at 65.7% at the line, and their woes continued in the conference tournament. Texas Wesleyan went just 7-for-23 (30.4%) at the line including four straight misses at the end of regulation before succumbing 86-84 in the second overtime period.
Amazingly, the Rams nearly overcame the poor night at the line as well as the absence of their second leading scorer
Jerrell Ellis. Ellis suffered an injury during their final regular season game against SAGU and was unable to play on Wednesday.
The game was extremely tight. The first half alone saw nine tie scores and seven lead changes. Entering the final minute of the period,
Teyvon Lundy tied the contest at 35-35 with 1-of-2 at the free throw line. After a USAO miss,
Hasani Sumbry tipped in a miss at the buzzer to send the Rams to the locker room on top 37-35.
Neither team could gain any separation in the second half either.
Merv Lindsay scored to tie the game at 69-69 with one minute to play. With 26 seconds to play, the Rams missed two at the line, but
Seandre Sadler came up with a huge offensive rebound. With 19 seconds to play, the Rams again missed two at the line. Again it looked like the Rams were saved when Lindsay came up with the rebound on the second miss, but USAO's Ed'Lexus Collier stole the ball away with 15 seconds to go. The Rams buckled down defensively, forcing a miss, and the game rolled into overtime.
Texas Wesleyan held USAO scoreless in the first four minutes of overtime and held a 74-69 lead before Collier scored and was fouled. Collier missed the free throw, but USAO sent the Rams to the line and the Rams missed two more freebies. An and-one from Jerry Coriolan tied the game at 74-74 with 33 seconds remaining.
The Rams brought the ball up the floor with the shot-clock turned off, and
Sam Akano nailed a running jumper in the lane with two seconds to play. Out of a timeout, Collier threw a baseball pass that found Coriolan on the right wing. Two seconds was enough for Coriolan to drive to the hoop and score to send the game to another overtime period.
Six unanswered points gave the Drovers the largest lead of the game for either team at 84-77 with 1:10 to play. Lindsay broke the drought with a three, and Akano scored a layup with 28 seconds to play making it a two-point game at 84-82.
With 18 seconds on the clock, USAO's Markens Charles sealed the game with a pair of free throws. A layup from Akano capped the scoring at 86-84 with one second to play.
For the game, the Drovers outshot the Rams 46%-45% from the field, but the Rams led 38%-20% in long range shooting. Texas Wesleyan also held slight advantages in rebounding (46-41) and turnovers (21-20). The difference was at the free throw line where the Drovers were good on 20-of-29 for 69%.
Akano led all scorers with 26 points to go with six rebounds and five assists. Lindsay added 19 points and nine boards.
Chris Gracela scored 15 points, and
Hasani Sumbry contributed seven points and 10 rebounds.
USAO was led by Collier's 24 points six rebounds and six assists. Brendan Chapman had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Charles finished with 14 points, David Tucker 13, and Coriolan 12.
The loss ends Texas Wesleyan's season at 15-15 in a season in which the Rams posted the second best start in school history at 12-0.
Ramblings
- Akano finished the season with 619 points (20.6/g) becoming the first Ram to average better than 20 points per game since Eric Frederick's record 25.4 per game in the 2011-12 season.
- This was the first multiple overtime game for Texas Wesleyan since December 3, 2011, when the Rams won 79-73 in triple overtime at LSU-Shreveport.
- The Rams and Drovers have split 12 games in the all-time series.
- Texas Wesleyan is 0-2 all-time in SAC Tournament play.
- USAO advances to play regular season SAC Champion MACU in Thursday's quarterfinal round.
