11/15/17
(MILLIGAN COLLEGE, TN.)- Men’s Basketball falls short by one in overtime at Milligan College
The Truett McConnell University men’s basketball team (5-1) lost in overtime,84-85, Tuesday night in the AAC opening match at Milligan College. Senior David Campbell Jr. had an outstanding performance scoring 38 points against the Buffaloes that now places him in a tie for 4th place for single-game scoring. (Christian Davis scored 38 last season at St. Andrews.)
Truett McConnell battled to finish the first half with a comfortable lead (39-32). Milligan battled back after a seven-point deficit and then went in a toe-to-toe race for the remainder of the half. After 69 apiece and 71 apiece, the Buffs trailed by one with 14 seconds left (76-77). However, Milligan’s Tyler Nichols earned an offensive rebound and was sent to the free throw line.
Nichols tied the game with two seconds left (77-77) going 1-2 from the line forcing TMU into their first overtime challenge of the season.
OVERTIME
Immediately Milligan drained a 3-pointer in the first 20 seconds of overtime and then hit a fast break layup to extend the lead by five points with two and a half minutes to go (82-77).
The Bears never gave up and fought to minimize the deficit by one making a huge 3-pointer and then a free throw with just 43 seconds left (82-81). Nineteen seconds later, Truett’s Darius Thrower drained a 3-pointer putting the Bears in the lead (84-83). With three seconds left to go, Milligan received an offensive rebound and scored to ultimately seal the game for a victory.
Head Coach Jon Yeh stated, “Normally, if you give us two chances to get a stop to win the game (regulation and overtime), I have faith that we’ll get the job done each time. That just wasn’t the case tonight. We got them to miss on the initial shot each time but just couldn’t corral the rebounds in either situation.” Darius Thrower had a nice bounce back in the second half. He hit the big shot in overtime to give us the lead, but he also made some key hustle plays down the stretch to put us in a position to win.”
Leading for the TMU Bear’s was Senior David Campbell with a career-high 38 points; 14 field goals and 7 3-pt field goals. Dating back to last season, it is the 12th consecutive game he has tallied double-digit scoring. Coach Jon Yeh complimented, “David had one of those special nights where he was feeling it all game long. It’s a shame that those efforts ended up being in a loss.”
Also for the Bears was Senior Mario Westbrooks with 14 points, while Christian Davis and Calvin White also contributed to a 10 piece against Milligan College.
The Bears will continue AAC play back home in the Bearcave this upcoming Saturday against Montreat College at 4:00 pm following the Women’s game at 2:00 pm.
