RedStorm slips past Blue Raiders

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The back stretch on the road to a perfect finish in the Bevo Francis Classic was anything but smooth for the University of Rio Grande men's basketball team.
     In fact, the RedStorm endured its share of peaks and valley on its way to an unbeaten weekend.
     Head coach Ryan Arrowood's squad coughed up a 13-point half advantage before rallying from a four-point second half deficit and hanging on in the closing seconds for an 84-81 victory over Lindsey Wilson College, Saturday afternoon, at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Rio Grande pushed its record to 6-1 with a sixth consecutive win.
     Lindsey Wilson, which was among the team's receiving votes in the most recent NAIA coaches' Top 25 poll, dropped to 8-2 after entering the two-day event with an unbeaten record.
     The Blue Raiders were playing without the services of their second-leading scorer, sophomore guard Kenyata Carbon (17.0 ppg), who also leads the team in assists per game (5.7).
     Despite Carbon's absence, LWC still found itself leading 18-15 after a bucket by Daviel Jackson with 10:06 left in the first half, but Rio responded with a 24-8 run over the next 6-1/2 minutes to take a 39-26 cushion following a three-pointer by senior Eythan House (Montrose, Australia) with 3:23 left before the intermission.
     The Blue Raiders refused to fade, though, slicing the deficit to eight, 41-33, by halftime and eventually completing the comeback altogether when a Matt Khoury three-pointer with 11:15 remaining in the game gave the visitors a 56-55 lead.
     Lindsey Wilson's advantage went on to reach four points, 61-57, after a pair of Julian Cunningham free throws with 10:07 left, but Rio Grande reeled off 10 straight points over the next two minutes to take the lead once and for all.
     The RedStorm went on to lead by as many as 11 points with just under six minutes left and were still in front by nine, 80-71, after a basket by junior Keylane Lasisi (Paris, France) with 2:46 remaining, but the Blue Raiders countered with one last attempt at rescuing victory from the jaws of defeat.
     A three-pointer by Cunningham capped a 10-2 run and brought LWC as close as 82-81 with 8.4 seconds left.
     Junior Trey Robertson (Waverly, OH) canned a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 84-81 with 7.0 seconds remaining, but a would-be, game-tying three-point try by Khoury just ahead of the final buzzer was off the mark.
     Robertson and junior Jaylin Fox (South Haven, MI) led six double-digit scorers for Rio Grande with 15 points each, while graduate senior Milan Square (Youngstown, OH) had 13 points, senior Eric Butler (Orlando, FL) netted 12, House tossed in 11 and redshirt junior Jaelin Johnson (Fairmont, WV) had 10.
     Butler also had a team-high seven rebounds and five assists, while Robertson also had five assists and two steals.
     Square also had five assists, while Fox also had two steals to go along with a blocked shot in the winning effort.
     Rio Grande shot just under 52 percent overall (31-for-60) and was 11-for-23 from three-point range (47.8%), while committing just five turnovers.
     Cunningham finished with a game-high 27 points and six assists, while also sharing team honors in steals with two for Lindsey Wilson.
     Jackson had 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for the Blue Raiders, while Olson Nicholson also had 13 points and Connor Robinson added two steals of his own.
     LWC finished 28-for-54 overall (51.9%), 12-for-24 from three-point range (50.0%) and 13-for-16 at the foul line (81.3%).
     The Blue Raiders also enjoyed a 31-28 rebounding advantage.
     Rio Grande will return to action next Saturday when it hosts Bryant & Stratton (Ohio) College for a 1 p.m. tipoff.