Men's Basketball suffers gut-wrenching loss in 2OT

Waleska, Ga. - The St. Andrews University Men's Basketball team suffered a heartbreaking loss in double overtime to Reinhardt University (Ga.) 108-103 on the road Wednesday evening.

A back and forth first half saw Reinhardt take the lead on a buzzer-beating three-pointer 43-41 before the Eagles got out to a nine-point lead with six minutes to go leading 67-58 in the second half. St. Andrews would then rally back, though, and trim the lead to five points twice at 83-78 before again rallying with clutch layups and three-pointers. However, after RU took an 85-83 lead, the Knights had the ball with five seconds to go and guard Lee Vanderhorst (JR/Charleston, SC) got fouled driving the lane and calmly made both free throws to send the game to overtime.

St. Andrews dominated most of the overtime eventually stretching their lead to 93-87 before the Eagles began to rally with 90 seconds to play. After a series of RU threes and SAU free throws, the scoreboard showed the Knights clinging to a three-point lead at 96-93 with under ten seconds to paly and Reinhardt with the ball. Unfortunately for the Knights, Reinhardt would hit a buzzer-beating three to tie the game at 96 and send it to a second overtime.

This overtime was also closely played with forward Alex Tharp (JR/Orange Co., VA), in his first game back in three weeks, scoring 5 of SAU's 7 points including a big three to trim RU's advantage to 104-103 with 30 seconds to play. After what was originally ruled a Reinhardt turnover and SAU ball, the refs came together and reversed the call calling a foul on Jeff Gulley (SR/Carrollton, GA) giving the Eagles two free throws to extend their lead instead. SAU's Titus Gary (JR/Fayetteville, NC) would then miss a three-pointer as the Knights would suffer another tough loss falling by five.

The teams were about exactly even shooting from the floor with St. Andrews hooting 45.5 percent to RU's 45.8 percent. The difference obviously came at the three-point line as Reinhardt shot 12 of 28 (43%) whereas the Knights only managed to go 5 of 17 (29%). Both of the schools' matchups this season have been close with the Knights winning by a point in December.

SAU was led by five guys in double-figure scoring led by senior forward Jeff Gulley's team-leading 26 points and 10 rebounds on 10 of 17 shooting along with 3 blocks while fellow forward Tharp scored 15 on 6 of 8 shooting with 6 rebounds and two blocks. Junior guards Titus Gary and Vanderhorst also each scored 17 points apiece and combined for 13 rebounds and 2 steals.

Finally, senior guard Quentin Duncan (SR/Norfolk, VA) also scored 10 points with two 3-pointers while point guard Jibri Banner (SR/Upper Marlboro, MD) finished with 8 points, four steals, four rebounds and 2 assists.

St. Andrews falls to 9-12 overall and 5-9 in the conference with the rough loss while Reinhardt improves to 13-11 and 7-7.

SAU will next return home to host Bryan College on Saturday at 2 p.m.