LANCASTER, Texas – Trailing by a point with 10 seconds left in the game, the University of Mary men's basketball team took advantage of a pair of missed free throws by Southern Arkansas and took the defensive rebound on the second miss the other way for what turned out to be the game-winning layup with five seconds left to hand SAU a tough loss, 77-76.
The loss drops the Muleriders to 1-1 on the young season while UMary improved to 2-0.
In the game, UMary took the early advantage over the Muleriders and raced out to a 14-point lead, 23-9, at the 12:31 mark of the first half. The Muleriders would gain their footing from there, however and ripped off an 8-0 run to pull to within six points, 23-17, with 9:17 left in the opening frame.
The UMary Marauders would maintain a lead over the Muleriders, extending it back to double figures on a couple of occasions over the next three minutes, but a 13-5 SAU run over the next four minutes tied the game at 38-all with just 32 seconds left in the half. The Marauders would break that tie on their next trip down the court as Brandon Tyler connected on a three-ball to give UMary a three-point lead heading into the break.
In the second half, the Muleriders opened with a quick 5-0 run to take their first lead since early in the first half. The go-ahead score during that run was a three-pointer by
Jaron Davis as he once again got himself kick-started in terms of scoring as he would go on to score 17 second-half points en route to scoring a game-high 22 points.
After that lead was gained by the Muleriders, the game would be back and forth for the next four minutes of game time before the Marauders were able to take a seven-point lead, 52-45, with 15:32 left in the game.
From there, a quick 8-2 burst over the next 20 seconds gave the Muleriders the lead once more, 55-54. During that fury of scoring, Davis accounted for all eight points as he buried a pair of trifectas and finished a layup.
From that point on until the end of the game, neither team would lead by more than four points. Furthermore, the final 15 minutes of play would see five tie scores and five lead changes with the last of the lead changes going for the Marauders in the waning seconds.
