Fallin's Barbeque Men's Basketball Postgame Report - Keiser
THOMASVILLE, Ga. - Micah Goss' fourth 3-pointer Saturday afternoon with 0.1 seconds remaining allowed No. 25 Keiser (Fla.) to escape TU Gymnasium with a 77-74 Sun Conference (TSC) win over Thomas. The Seahawks won their third-straight game on the final possession, while the Night Hawks fell to 2-2 against ranked opponents this season.
"Today was an incredible game by both teams," Night Hawks coach
Brent Crews said. "We played extremely hard and matched their intensity, but their guy just made a great play at the end.
"Once again, the crowd was great. The students showed up and were loud today."
Goss led all scorers with 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range, to go along with six rebounds, four assists and three steals. Deion McClenton had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds, going 7-of-14 from inside the arc, to go along with four blocks. Andrew Sarenac registered 15 points and five assists. Trystan Pratapas had 12 points off the bench.
JaVoris Cooks and
Katrell Myers netted 15 points, five rebounds and three assists apiece for Thomas (9-10, 4-7 TSC). Cooks was 4-of-8 from deep.
Willie Holloway,
Johnnel Ginnie and
Javon Heastie each scored eight points. Holloway was a perfect 4-of-4 from within six feet of the basket to go along with eight boards and a career-high five rejections. Myers and Heastie combined for 23 of their team's 33 bench points.
Demetrius Rivers and
Jalen Bonds had seven and six rebounds, respectively.
Keiser (14-6, 9-2 TSC) shot 51.7 percent (31-of-60) from the field, including 55.6 percent (10-of-18) from beyond the arc. The Seahawks were 60.7 percent (17-of-28) shooting in the final 20 minutes and made five treys in each half.
The Night Hawks were 40 percent (28-of-70) from the floor, 9-of-25 from 3 and 9-of-13 from the stripe. Crews' squad held a slight edge in rebounds (40-37), points in the paint (32-30), points off turnovers (14-10) and second chance points (11-10) in a game that featured nine ties and 10 lead changes.
Keiser used an 11-1 run in a 2:52 span of the first half, going 3-of-3 on triples, to grab its largest lead of the day, 23-14, but down eight, Thomas answered with a 12-0 spurt, as a Heastie bucket from distance gave his squad a 28-24 edge at the 4:53 mark of the first period. A Myers trey increased the margin to five 1:29 later, as he scored his team's last seven points of the half, including two free throws with less than a second on the clock, to give the Night Hawks a 37-35 lead at the break.
Cooks opened the second-half scoring with a 3, increasing the difference to five.Â
A back-and-forth game ensued. Following a McClenton fastbreak dunk at the 15:25 mark, Myers drove the lane and threw down a slam over McClenton that knocked the 6-11 defender to the ground and brought the crowd to its feet.
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"I just saw the crowd go crazy," Myers said of the the reaction to his dunk.
Myers dunk featured on #SCTop10
A Sarenac trey gave his team a 68-61 lead with 4:25 left, but the Night Hawks later trimmed the margin to one, 70-69, following consecutive layups by Rivers and Ginnie. An
Ivan Tomic steal and layup with 50 seconds to go again kept Thomas within a point, and after a Goss jumper, Myers found Ginnie in the corner for his only 3-pointer of the game, which tied the game at 74 with 15.8 seconds showing.
"When we (brought the ball) up the court, I noticed they tried to trap," Myers said. "Johnnel was open the whole time. He knocked a big shot down, gave us a chance to still win the game, but unfortunately they made a big shot right after."Â
Following Goss' make, the Night Hawks were unable to get off a potential game-tying shot before time expired.
Thomas continues TSC action at No. 14 Saint Thomas (Fla.) on Thursday, Jan. 25, at 7:30 p.m. ET.
