Edinboro, Pa. – The Edinboro men's basketball team scored an 82-75 victory in overtime over visiting Slippery Rock in PSAC West action Wednesday night inside McComb Fieldhouse.
The Scots trailed 72-70 with 3:10 to play in overtime after a Dame Givner layup. Ibrahim Adbulmateen-Robinson tied the game with a pair of free throws at the 2:48 mark. After a Slippery Rock offensive foul,
Rowan Carmichael gave Edinboro their first lead of the extra frame with a driving layup.
Mekhi Reynolds hit an off-balance 3-pointer with 1:17 left to extend the lead to 77-72. Givner hit a triple of his own to cut the lead to 77-75, but the Scots kept Slippery Rock off the board the rest of the way while finishing 5-of-6 at the charity stripe to secure the victory.
The Scots got out to a fast start in the first half, building a 9-2 lead with Sandhu accounting for five of those points. The Edinboro lead grew to 10, 18-8, on a Carmichael layup at the 12:50 mark. Slippery Rock got buckets from Isaac James and Sheick Samoura to trim the lead to 18-12 with 12:03 left in the opening half.
A Baez layup and a Reynolds 3-pointer jump started a 14-6 spurt capped by a Carmichael triple to extend the Scot advantage to 32-18 at the 5:17 mark. Slippery Rock scored the next nine points to trim the lead to 32-27 with 2:46 to go in the first. Berger connected on a 3-pointer and Reynolds made a layup to make it 37-27 with 1:52 on the clock. The Rock closed out the half on an 8-3 run to trim the halftime lead to 40-35.
The Scot lead grew to eight, 52-44, after a Berger layup at the 14:37 mark of the second half. Brady Mayo hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 52-47 but Edinboro answered with seven straight to extend the lead to 59-47.
Edinboro lead by 12, 59-47, after a pair of
Bryce Baez free throws at the 10:51 mark of the second half. The Rock scored the next seven points capped by a pair of Braylon Littlejohn free throws to trim the lead to 59-54 with 8:42 remaining. The Scots scored the next six points on an
Evan Berger layup, an Amann Sandhu tip in and a Reynold layup to push the lead back out to 65-54.
Slippery Rock answered with a 12-2 run cutting the lead to 67-66 with 59 seconds on the clock after a Kerwin Prince and-one. Baez hit a free throw and Prince made a layup with 14 seconds left to tie the game and force overtime.
Reynolds paced the Edinboro offense with 21 points to go with six assists and four rebounds. Carmichael chipped in 15 points, four boards and four assists. Baez tallied 14 points, nine rebounds and two steals. Berger finished with 13 points and five boards while Sandhu notched a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards.
Mayo led the Rock with 18 points. Prince tallied 16 points and seven rebounds. Givner added 15 points and six boards.
The Scots return to action on Saturday with a trip to Clarion. Game time is slated for 3 p.m. inside Tippin Gymnasium.
