Rio hangs on late, tops Point Park

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - For the second consecutive outing, the University of Rio Grande saw a substantial first half advantage nearly disappear before its very eyes.
     But for the second consecutive outing, the RedStorm found a way to hang on and secure another all-important victory.
     Shiloah Blevins connected on a pair of free throws with 10.1 seconds remaining and Miki Tadic went 1-for-2 at the charity stripe just two seconds later to secure a 75-69 win over Point Park University, Tuesday night, in a matchup of the top two men's basketball teams in the River States Conference's East Division at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Rio Grande, which remains among the teams receiving votes in the latest NAIA coaches' Top 25 poll, won for a sixth straight time and the 19th time in 21 games to push its overall record to 20-5 and its league mark to 13-1.
     The RedStorm also extended their division lead over the Pioneers to 2-1/2 games with three RSC contests still to play.
     Point Park, which had won four straight and nine of its previous 10 games, slipped to 20-6 overall and 11-4 in the RSC with the loss.
     Rio Grande looked as if it was going turn the highly-anticipated matchup of the league's two hottest teams into a lopsided affair, bolting to a 10-0 lead out of the gate and an eventual 38-19 cushion following a conventional three-point play by freshman Trent Hundley (Mount Orab, OH) with 4:21 remaining in the first half.
     The lead still stood at 15 points, 43-28, at the break, but the Pioneers' ability to cut into the deficit was a pre-cursor of things still to come over the course of the game's final 20 minutes.
     Point Park scored the first seven points of the second half to close the gap to eight, was within six by the 10:09 mark of the second half and trailed just 60-58 after a bucket by reigning RSC Player of the Week Jalen Stamps with 5:02 remaining.
     Stamps, who poured in a game-, season- and career-high 34 points, still had PPU within two, 67-65, after a pair of free throws with 1:36 left to play, but that's as close as the Pioneers would get the rest of the way.
     Point Park twice was within three points inside the game's final minute, including 72-69 following a pair of Cyrie Coates free throws with 21.0 seconds remaining, but Blevins - a senior from South Webster, Ohio - connected on both ends of a one-and-bonus situation at the foul line to make it a two-possession game.
     Tadic, a junior from Hilversum, The Netherlands, added another free throw after Rio got the ball back two seconds later to set the final score.
     Freshman Kaden Warner (Cincinnati, OH) led the winning effort for the RedStorm with 25 points and three steals, including 19 points in his team's blistering first half start.
     Blevins finished with 19 points, while Hundley had 11 before fouling out in the waning seconds and Tadic netted 10 points to go along with a team-best nine rebounds.
     As a team, Rio Grande shot 45 percent overall (27-for-60) and 80 percent from the foul line (16-for-20).
     Point Park shot 34.8 percent (24-for-69) overall and was just 6-for-23 from distance (26.1%).
     Stamps also had nine rebounds for the Pioneers, who had two other players reach double figures.
     Jo Valrie, who entered the contest averaging 19.5 points and 10.3 rebounds, finished with 15 points, but scored just two in the opening half.
     Coates, who was averaging just under 15 points per game, scored 11 points, but had just two field goals.
     Sherron Schifino, the last of PPU's double-digit scoring quartet at 11.9 ppg, failed to score.
     Rio Grande returns to the court on Saturday afternoon when it makes its final road trip of the regular season to face West Virginia University Tech.
     Tip time is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center in Beckley, W.Va.