Rio men survive late rally, hold off Golden Bears

Rio Grande Sports Information
     BECKLEY, W.Va. - A quick scoring flurry to begin the second half gave the University of Rio Grande a seemingly comfortable 17-point advantage.
     But as things turned out, the RedStorm needed every last one of those points in the end.
     West Virginia University Tech whittled the double-digit deficit down to two, but fumbled away a would-be game-tying opportunity in the waning seconds as Rio Grande held on for a 68-66 win over the Golden Bears, Saturday afternoon, in River States Conference men's basketball action at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
     The RedStorm improved to 19-7 overall and 10-4 in conference play with the win.
     Head coach Ryan Arrowood's team also moved back into sole possession of first place in the RSC East Division thanks to losses by Alice Lloyd College and Indiana University East, both of whom were tied for the division lead at day's beginning.
     WVU Tech dropped to 15-10 overall and 6-8 in the RSC and was eliminated from post-season contention with the loss.
     The Golden Bears led 30-28 following a three-point goal by Liam Craven with 3:07 remaining in the opening half, but Rio Grande closed the half on an 8-0 run for a 36-30 edge at the intermission and then opened the second period with a 14-3 spurt for a 50-33 lead after a jumper by senior Eric Butler (Orlando, FL).
     From that point on, though, the home team set it sights on mounting a Senior Day rally to remember.
     The methodical comeback effort saw Tech slice the deficit down to 68-66 with 1:05 left thanks to the last of three straight buckets by Darrin Martin.
     Martin gave the Golden Bears a final chance to either tie or win after rebounding a missed jumper by Rio redshirt junior Jaelin Johnson (Fairmont, WV) with 20 seconds remaining.
     Cameron Danser's potential game-winning three-pointer with six seconds left went around the cylinder and out, but he was fouled while grabbing the rebound of his own miss with four seconds remaining to give the home team one last chance.
     Martin took the inbounds pass and whipped a pass through the lane in the direction of Thomas Hailey, who worked his way open under the basket, but the pass went off Hailey's fingertips and out of bounds with 1.2 seconds left.
     The RedStorm then ran out the clock to seal the win.
     Rio Grande shot just over 49 percent overall (27-for-55) and was 11-for-17 from three-point range (64.7%).
     Junior Trey Robertson (Waverly, OH) led the winning effort with 18 points and six assists, while Butler finished with 14 points and the duo of Johnson and senior Eythan House (Montrose, Australia) netted 12 points each.
     Junior Keylane Lasisi (Paris, France) had a game-best 11 rebounds and three steals for the RedStorm, who also finished with a 34-27 rebounding edge.
     Martin had a game-high 22 points to lead the Golden Bears, while Adams Seams had 18 and Danser finshed with 16 points and three steals.
     Hailey had eight assists and Sincere Edwards pulled down six rebounds for Tech, which shot 42 percent overall (24-for-57) and 46.4 percent from distance (13-for-28).
     Rio Grande is scheduled to return to action on Tuesday night, weather permitting, with a trip to Alice Lloyd.
     Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m.