Rio men take surge from Shock

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - Shiloah Blevins canned a tie-breaking jumper with 1:00 remaining and the University of Rio Grande held on in the final seconds for a 66-63 win over Washington Adventist University, Saturday night, in the final round of men's division play in the 40th Annual Bevo Francis Classic at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     The RedStorm evened their record at 3-3 with the victory.
     Washington Adventist, an NAIA independent, suffered its first loss in four outings.
     The Shock trailed by as many as 17 points with just under five minutes left in the first half and by 14 at the intermission, but rallied to take a 53-51 lead on a Christian McGruder layup with 9:32 remaining in the contest.
     Enter Blevins stage left.
     His three-pointer with 7:24 left put Rio back in front, 56-55, and gave the hosts a lead they would never relinquish.
     There were two more ties, though, both of which Blevins broke, including a 63-all deadlock which the South Webster, Ohio senior erased on the jumper with 60 seconds remaining.
     Junior Miki Tadic (Hilversum, The Netherlands) connected on one of two free throws with 28 seconds left to extend the cushion to three points, but Adventist missed a pair of would-be, game-tying trifectas - including one by Lavel Harris at the final buzzer - sealing the win.
     Rio Grande hit just nine of its 33 field goal attempts in the second half (27.3%) and was 2-for-24 among those not named Blevins.
     Hours after scoring 23 of his 29 points in the second half of Friday night's win over Carolina University, Blevins had 15 of his game-high 21 points over the final 20 minutes of Saturday's win.
     He also finished with eight rebounds and a blocked shot.
     Tadic added 16 points and freshman Kaden Warner (Cincinnati, OH) had 10 points in the winning effort, although the duo combined for just one point in the second half.
     Tadic also had three assists and a pair of steals.
     Rio Grande finished 26-for-65 from the floor overall (40.0%) and 8-for-28 from beyond the three-point arc, while going just 6-for-12 at the free throw line.
     Harris led Washington Adventist with 12 points and three steals, while Darius Huff finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds and a trio of steals.
     Mohammed Bundu contributed 11 points and two blocked shots in a losing cause for the Shock, who tallied a better overall shooting percentage than the RedStorm (42.4%) but went 2-for-18 from three-point range (11.1%) and 11-for-20 at the charity stripe (55.0%).
     Rio Grande is scheduled to return to action on Saturday afternoon when it opens River States Conference play at Ohio Christian University.
     Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. at the Maxwell Center in Circleville.