McPherson, KS – Men's Basketball takes Pioneers to Overtime to decide this matchup.
Tigers are having their best start to SAC play and came up within inches of starting out 3-0 in the Sooner Athletic Conference.
Everyone in the gym knew this game was going to come down to the final seconds after witnessing the highly competitive first half. The game didn't start like most of the Tigers games have so far this season. The Pioneers would start off going 9-11 from the floor and 2-3 from behind the arc to build a fast lead to begin the game. Despite the excellent shooting the Tigers were finding ways to not let the game get to far out of hand. At one point the Pioneers would see their lead get all the way up to 24-12, but the Tigers would go on an 18-6 run over the course of 10 minutes to get the game back to square at 30. Tigers and Pioneers would go to half all tied up at 36 apiece.
The tension would get even deeper in the 2
nd half as the Tigers would jump out to a quick lead and hold that lead for almost 18 minutes, but would never get over a 5 point lead. The Tigers would hold a 68-64 lead with just under 2 minutes left in regulation. After a couple of empty possessions the Pioneers would tie the game up at 71-71 and Tigers would have 17 seconds to take the last shot. The Tigers would turn to Junior Guard
Isaiah Rivera to take the last shot and he would shoot from well beyond the arc and come up inches away from the ball dropping, but the ball wouldn't fall and the teams would have to go to overtime.
This would be the Tigers first taste of overtime in the 2020-2021 season and both teams would start off sluggish to begin the extra period. Wayland would finally score and have their first lead for the first time since the 1
st half. They would hold this lead the entire overtime period as the Tigers would struggle to regain the lead. However the Tigers would still have a chance to tie the game in their last possession and with 3 seconds left on the clock the Tiger shooter would take his shot and it would bounce off the rim and fall into Pioneer hands and the game was over. Tigers take a tough loss 79-75 to the Pioneers.
"I am so proud of our team tonight. Our guys battled their tails off! Nothing to be ashamed of, one more play goes our way, and our guys have a different feeling right now. We won the rebound game, second chance points, points off turnovers, were plus 21 of FGA, benched out scored theirs, made more field goals, made more threes, but the stat we didn't win was the FT battle and games are won there. We also just had a stretch at the end of regulation and in overtime where we could not score a basket, good looks, just didn't go in. I thought our frontline did a great job again getting dirty in the paint on both sides. Darrell had a terrific game. We are back at it Saturday. Cannot hang our heads, chins up, stay together, learn, and get the next one." – Coach
Tony Romero
Tigers drop to 8-2 (2-1 SAC)
Go Tigers!
#Ambush
