GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Will Perry scored 26 points, including 10 alone in the second overtime to lead Lenoir-Rhyne University to an 88-85 win over Tusculum College Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Arena in South Atlantic Conference men's basketball action.
Perry shot 10-of-12 at the free throw line, including 7-of-8 in the second overtime alone. He would score the Bears final eight points of the contest, including a pair of free throws with seven seconds left to give LR what looked like to be an insurmountable lead at 88-84.
Tusculum freshman Taylor Haftield was fouled going to the bucket with 3.3 seconds to go. Hatfield made the first free throw to cut the deficit to 88-85 and would miss the second attempt on purpose. TC sophomore Cory Fagan came up with the rebound and got the ball to junior guard Javon Price on the wing. Price got the shot off before the buzzer, but his long-range attempt to send the contest to a third overtime period hit of the rim to end the thriller.
L-R's Reed Lucas led all scorers with 28 points off the bench, while Darrion Evans accounted for 14 markers and five rebounds. Rob Noyes totaled seven points and a game-high 17 rebounds in the victory.
Price recorded 24 points on the day for his third straight 20-point outing, while sophomore center Chase Mounce tallied 17 points and six boards. Junior forward Matt Shown posted his second consecutive double-double with 11 points and a season-high 15 rebounds. Hatfield contributed 11 points off the bench, while sophomore Cory Fagan added 10 points, six rebounds and a career-high six assists in the loss.
The Bears (5-7, 3-5 SAC) led throughout the entire first half and carried a 32-30 lead into the locker room.
The Pioneers (1-12, 1-7 SAC) took their first lead of the game following a pair of Mounce free throws to start the second half at 34-32. TC would extend the lead to five points (39-34) thanks to a Fagan three-pointer and a Mounce layup.
With Tusculum leading 43-41 with 14:27 remaining in regulation, the Bears erupted for a 12-2 run, including eight points by Lucas during the spurt to take a 53-45 advantage with 11:26 on the clock.
TC chipped away at the deficit with 7-1 run, including a three-pointer and two free throws by Price to cut the LR lead to 54-52. But the Bears answered with nine straight points, capped off by Perry three-pointer as Lenoir-Rhyne jumped out to its largest lead of the afternoon at 63-52 with 7:53 remaining in the half.
The Bears led 66-57 with 5:53 to go in regulation, but the Tusculum defense would clamp down and shut out Lenoir-Rhyne for the remainder of the half. The Bears would go 0-for-5 from the floor down the stretch, including 0-for-2 from the free throw line. Price buried a three pointer at the 5:00 mark and Hatfield canned a trey with 2:45 to go to cut the deficit to 66-64. After LR came up empty on its next possession, Price was fouled with 1:30 remaining and tied the game at 66-66 with a pair of free throws.
Lenoir-Rhyne turned the ball over as Lucas' pass to Evans was too low and went out of bounds with 1:13 left. Price's three-point attempt was off target, but he came up with the rebound with 40 seconds left. With a five-second difference on the shot clock and game clock, the Pioneers would try for the go-ahead basket at the end of the shot clock. The play looked to work to perfection as Price's reverse layup went in, but was ruled that it came after the shot clock had run out.
With 2.8 seconds remaining, the Bears got the inbounds pass to half court and called timeout with two seconds to go. LR got a good luck at a three-point shot, but it was off the mark, sending the game into overtime.
In the first overtime, Lenoir-Rhyne took a 70-68 lead following a Lucas layup with 3:12 left in the extra frame. Tusculum followed with five straight points as Mounce went 5-for-6 at the stripe to account for the run as TC led 73-70 with 1:06 to go.
Perry missed on the ensuing possession, but he would gather in the rebound and make the layup with 36 seconds to go and cut the TC lead to 73-72. Hatfield was fouled six seconds later as he made his two free throws to extend the lead back to three (75-72).
But on LR's next possession, Perry was fouled while shooting a three-pointer and went to the line and made all three free throws to tie knot the game at 75-75 with 18 seconds left in the first OT.
Tusculum called a timeout and set the play to get the ball inside to Mounce. Mounce got a good look at the basket as his shot grazed off the back iron with one second left. Shown came up with the offensive board and tapped it towards the goal but would not go in, sending the game into a second overtime.
With score tied at 80-80 in the second overtime, Perry connected on his second 3-pointer of the game to give the Bears an 83-80 lead with 1:31 left on the scoreboard.
Hatfield's three-point try on the next possession was off the mark and went out of bounds for the Bears. Perry missed on his next shot attempt, but he would gather in the offensive rebound and would be fouled sending him to the line where he connected on both free throws for an 85-80 LR lead with 37 seconds left.
Price would be fouled on TC's ensuing trip up the floor as he made both of his charity stripe attempts to cut the deficit to 85-82 with 26 seconds remaining. Five seconds later, Perry would be fouled, but this time he would miss the first free throw and make the second for an 86-82 lead.
Hatfield would be fouled on TC's possession with 8.2 seconds as he cut the LR lead to 86-84 with his two free throw makes and setting up the thrilling final moments of the game.
Lenoir-Rhyne shot 42 percent from the floor and 73 percent from the free throw line, including a sizzling 11-of-13 in the overtime periods (85%). Tusculum fired 37 percent from the floor, including 3-for-13 in overtime (23%). Tusculum also shined at the strip going 13-of-16 (81%) in the final 10 minutes of the game (OT).
Tusculum will begin a four-game road-swing on Wednesday when the Pioneers travel to Harrogate, Tennessee to take on in-state rival and fourth-ranked Lincoln Memorial University for an 8 p.m. contest at Turner Arena.
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