The Urbana University men’s basketball team suffered a 61-58 overtime setback against Shepherd on Saturday afternoon in the Grimes Center.
UU (3-12, 2-8 MEC) led 31-26 at halftime, and led by as much as 10 in the opening period, but managed only 20 second-half points with four of those coming in the final seconds. SU (10-6, 6-4 MEC), which won its seventh straight, utilized an 18-3 run over a nine-minute stretch to move out in front, 50-45, with five minutes left and staved off the Blue Knights late.
Later on, down two and coming out of a timeout with 13 seconds left, junior guard Roy Hatchett Jr. beat his defender off the dribble for the game-tying layup. SU’s desperation three fell short at the buzzer and the squads headed to overtime with the score knotted at 51-51.
The teams traded baskets in the extra frame as junior guard Malik Jacobs drained a three to even the score at 58-58 with 1:49 on the clock. Then, SU scored off a put-back layup with 29 seconds to go and then UU failed to respond again with a missed shot opportunity in the post. The Rams tacked on one more free throw and UU ran out of time to complete its comeback.
It was the first overtime contest of the season for the Blue Knights.
Jacobs paced UU with 20 points and team-high nine boards.Senior guard Carlas Jackson recorded 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
UU shot much better than SU (48 percentoverall and 38 percent from three-point range), while holding the slight edge on the boards, 38-37, but 15 turnovers and 18 second-chance points for Shepherd proved costly.
Shepherd forward Winston Burgess produced a double-double with a career-high 22 points and 10 boards. He scored 17 of the team’s 26 points in the first half. Forward A.J. Carr also provided a double-double with 12 points and 12 boards.
UU travels to No. 3 West Liberty (15-0, 10-0 MEC) Wednesday night in MEC action. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. at the ASRC, where the Blue Knights will aim to erase WLU’s 41-game home win streak. The Hilltoppers will be coming off their closest game of year after escaping Concord with a 119-110 road win on Saturday.
