Eagles nip RedStorm men

Rio Grande Sports Information
RIO GRANDE, Ohio - Narrow losses have become the rule, rather than the exception, for the University of Rio Grande men's basketball team in recent weeks.
The latest chapter in the RedStorm's season of heartbreak was written in Tuesday night's regular season home finale.
Kenny Gaynor's jumper in the lane with 3:48 remaining snapped a 66-all tie and lifted Cincinnati Christian University to a 75-74 win over head coach Ken French's club in Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action at the Newt Oliver Arena.
Rio Grande, which fell for the sixth time in its last eight outings, slipped to 17-12 overall and 7-8 in league play with the loss.
The Eagles, who were among the team's receiving votes in the latest NAIA coaches poll, improved to 19-8 overall and 10-5 in the KIAC with a second straight win.

A see-saw affair from the outset, the contest featured six ties and 14 lead changes.
Rio Grande trailed by as many as seven points in the opening half, but sliced the deficit to two points, 38-36, by halftime.
The RedStorm then scored the first seven points of the second stanza to take their largest lead of the game, 43-38, following a bucket by senior D.D. Joiner (Columbus, OH) with 17:39 left to play, but CCU responded with seven straight points of their own to regain the lead with 16:12 remaining and a back-and-forth finish was on for the rest of the night.
The Eagles built a six-point lead with 11:48 left, only to see Rio rebound with a 12-2 run of its own which produced a 60-56 edge after a layup by senior Kevonta Black (Nashville, TN) with 8:29 remaining.
CCU scored the next four points to tie the game, with three more ties and another lead change to follow.
The Eagles led 71-69 after Joiner hit one of two free throws with 1:16 still to play, but DJ McCommons hit a jumper with 51 seconds left and both ends of a one-and-bonus free throw situation to make it 75-69 with 17.7 seconds remaining.
Black hit a driving layup with 1.3 seconds left and canned a three-pointer as time expired after stealing the ensuing inbounds pass to set the final score.
Khari Burton had a game-high 17 points and five steals to pace CCU, while Gyanor had 16 points, McCommons finished with 13 and Blake Walsman snared a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Eagles were outrebounded 44-29, but committed just two turnovers and shot 43.9 percent (29-for-66) from the floor.
In addition to the rebounding edge, Rio shot 52.5 percent from the field (31-for-59) but committed 14 turnovers.
Joiner had 17 points in a losing cause for the RedStorm, while junior Matt Rhodes (Westerville, OH) had 13, Black netted 11 and senior Dwayne Bazemore (Columbus, OH) had 10 points and tied junior Corey Cruse for team rebounding honors with eight.
Rio Grande closes out its regular season on Saturday, traveling to Owensboro, Ky. for a meeting with Brescia University.