The Urbana University men’s hoops team lost another heartbreaker Sunday afternoon, falling by three points inside the Grimes Center to visiting UVa-Wise, 85-82.
UU (1-11, 0-7 MEC) has lost six games this season by seven points or less, with Sunday’s defeat extending its current losing streak to nine. UU will seek its first league win Tuesday night at home against Concord.
Sophomore Carlas Jackson and freshman Jahmere Howze led the Blue Knights with 21 points each. Jackson went 3 of 6 from beyond the arc, and has now made at least two 3-pointers in 10 of 12 games this season.
Freshman Colin Curran played his best game as a Blue Knight, pouring in a career-high 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting with three treys. Sophomore Matt Csuhran also reached double digits with 10 points and tied Jackson with a team-high seven boards.
UU shot 42.2 percent from the floor and made 8 of 20 three-point attempts. UVa-Wise converted 31 of 66 field goals and hit 10 threes on 25 attempts.
With the score tied 32-32 at the half, the visiting Cavaliers came out of the break to grab a 38-36 lead early on in the second half.
The rest of the game featured scoring runs from both teams.
Back-to-back threes from Jackson and Curran sparked a 10-1 UU run, which gave the Blue Knights a 46-39 lead at the 17:00 mark.
Three minutes later, the teams entered a media timeout deadlocked at 50-50 and then it was UVa-Wise’s turn for a run.
The Cavs went up 56-50 on back-to-back treys, and eventually built a 10-point lead when they went up 70-60 with nine minutes left.
That prompted a mass substitution from UU head coach Rob Summers, which proved to be a great decision as the five new players sparked a 10-0 run over the next three minutes and 11 seconds. A pair of free throws from junior Aarmanni Garnett tied the score at 70-70, and UU seemed to have all the momentum.
However, the Cavs answered once more and led the rest of the way.
UU got to within two points twice with under a minute to go, but couldn’t pull through. Curran stole a UVa-Wise in-bounds pass and finished the layup to make it 82-80 Cavs with 34 seconds left, but the visitors made two freebies on the other end.
Jackson hit a jumper on the next possession to cut it back to two at 84-82, and then Csuhran stole the following in-bounds pass with seven seconds, but UU missed on a go-ahead three-point attempt.
Tuesday’s tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. inside the Grimes Center.
