MOBILE, Ala. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) men's basketball team dropped a heartbreaking 83-81 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) decision to the Benedict College Tigers on Monday night at the Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center as the visitors from Columbia, S.C. found the bottom of the net with a 3-pointer on the game's final shot.
The Tigers (6-8, 3-4 SIAC East) came out of the halftime locker rooms clinging to a 44-43 advantage after a back-and-forth first half that saw five ties and five lead changes.
SHC took a 45-44 lead two minutes into the period, but Benedict went on a 12-3 run over the next three minutes to put the Badgers in a 57-47 hole before senior Badger guard
Gresyn Rogers of Casa Grande, Ariz. stopped the bleeding by draining a trey from the top of the key.
The Badger battled back to tie the game at 60-60 off a successful hoop-and-the-harm layup and free throw by senior guard
Pat McNamara of Arlington Heights, Ill. with 11:30 left to play.
Over the next 8 minutes of play, the Tigers seemed to find answers for every Badger basket and reclaimed a 78-72 cushion. Two more freebies at the line by McNamara were followed by a layup from Rogers and SHC had suddenly retied the game at 78-78 with 1:38 remaining in the game.
With 57 seconds on the clock, senior guard
Dwight Harris of Americus, Ga. put home two more free throws to stake SHC to an 80-78 lead, but Joseph Staton of Benedict answered with a driving layup to tie the game at 80-80 and only 40 seconds to go.
Senior forward
Chase Shellman from Louisville, Ky. converted on 1-of-2 free throws with 19.8 seconds showing on the clock to make it an 81-80 Badger lead, but Anthony Gomes of Benedict connected on a 3-pointer from the right side at 1.1 seconds as a final long in-bound attempt by SHC was intercepted, handing the Tigers the victory.
Shellman scored 23 points with 11 rebounds and 4 assists for the Badgers while Rogers added 15 points. Freshman
Maurice McCullum of Plainfield, Ill. pitched in 12 points, McNamara had 11 and sophomore guard
Christian Brandt of Auburn, Ala. tallied 10 points.
As a team, SHC shot 43.1% (28-65) from the field and 30.4% (7-23) from 3-point range. The Badgers lost 13 turnovers against 6 steals by the Tigers and edged out a 41-40 advantage in rebounding. Spring Hill only made 60% (18-30) of their free throw attempts.
Benedict's Tyrese Mapp scored 17 points and Gomes finished the night with 10 points as four Tigers reached double-digits in scoring. Benedict shot 43.1% (25-58) overall and tossed in 48% (12-25) of their shots from 3-point distance. The Tigers suffered 18 turnovers versus 9 steals by the Badgers and were successful on 80.8% (21-26) of their free throw attempts.
The Badgers (3-11, 2-4 SIAC West) will travel to Tuskegee on Saturday to face the West Division-leading Golden Tigers (8-5, 5-1 SIAC West) of Tuskegee University at 4 p.m. in the Daniel "Chappie" James Center.
