WASHINGTON, Pa. (Dec. 3) - The Saint Vincent men's basketball team came back from a 14-point deficit late in the second half to force overtime but was unable to complete the comeback in the extra session, falling 100-93 to host Washington & Jefferson in a Presidents' Athletic Conference thriller.
Trailing 80-66 with 4:55 left in regulation, Saint Vincent (6-2, 3-2 PAC) closed the second half on an 18-4 run, with Tayler McNeal sinking three free throws with two seconds left to tie the game at 84 and send it into overtime. The comeback would run out of steam, however, as W&J (7-1. 5-0 PAC) outscored SVC 10-3 over the final 3:14 of overtime to close out the win.
Fueled by 13 points over the last four minutes of the second half, McNeal led all players with 27 points and was one of four Bearcats to score in double figures, as Shemar Bennett scored 19 points, Jaden Gales 17 and Osyon Jones 10.
Bennett also grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season, while teammate Andrew Reed led the Bearcats with six assists.
Trailing 46-43 a minute into the second half, the Presidents looked to take control, embarking on a 22-8 run to open up a 65-54 lead with 12 minutes left in regulation. Their lead would hover between seven and 10 points over the next several minutes, before thrice opening up a 14-point lead, with the last coming at 80-66 with just inside five minutes left.
An offensive put-back by Bennett, followed by a McNeal jumper, trimmed the SVC gap to 80-70 with 4:06 remaining. Just 14 seconds later, a Gales steal would lead to a conventional three-point play from McNeal to pull SVC to within 80-73. The Presidents' subsequent possession would also end in a steal, this time by Reed, and lead to another and-one from McNeal to make it a four-point game, 80-76, with 3:43 to go.
After the two teams traded scoreless possessions over the next two minutes, W&J increased its lead to 82-76 on a layup with 1:50 to go. Gales promptly answered with a layup of his own, drawing a foul and connecting on the free throw to pull SVC to within three with 1:33 remaining. The Bearcats were then forced to foul, and W&J upped its lead back to five on a pair of free throws with 21 seconds to go.
McNeal connected on a layup on the ensuing possession and after another foul, the Presidents missed a pair of freebies to keep the score at 84-81 with 10 seconds left. Holding for a final shot, McNeal was then fouled on a three-point attempt from the top of the circle at the buzzer and promptly buried all three foul shots to improbably send the game into overtime.
McNeal stayed hot to start the extra session, scoring on each of SVC's first two trips over the opening 50 seconds. Bennett would then follow suit, with his driving layup giving the Bearcats a 90-88 lead with 3:31 left in overtime.
From there, however, it was all W&J. The Presidents produced points on each of the next five possessions, before closing out the win with four free throws over the final minute. Over the extra session, each team connected for four field goals, but W&J shot 7-for-11 from the line and made the overtime's lone three-pointer.
SVC jumped out to an 11-4 lead in the game's opening four minutes and would remain in front for most of the first half. W&J closed the gap to 16-14 with 13:41 to go, but the Bearcats responded with a 7-2 run over the next three minutes, with a Jones layup pushing the lead to 23-16 with 10:50 remaining. The SVC lead would hover between five and seven points over the next several minutes, before W&J countered with a 17-10 run to take a 39-38 lead with 1:41 left. The Bearcats regained the lead heading into the intermission, with a Seth Cooper three-pointer and a Gales layup over the final 45 seconds making it 44-43 at the break.
The Bearcats ended the afternoon shooting 44 percent (33-76) from the field and 74 percent (20-27) from the foul line. W&J shot 58 percent (41-70) from the field and 56 percent (13-23) from the line. Both teams made five three-pointers.
Led by Bennett's career afternoon on the glass, SVC closed with a commanding 50-35 rebounding advantage. The Bearcats scored 11 second-chance points to the Presidents' four, but the hosts scored 33 points off of 27 SVC turnovers.
Matt Seidl led W&J with 17 points, while Isaiah Langston grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds.
The Bearcats will return to action on Monday, Dec. 5, hosting Penn State-Fayette in a 7 p.m. non-conference bout in the Robert S. Carey Center. The game with the Lions kicks off a busy final week of the semester for the Bearcats, who will play four games in a six-day span, with a home game against Chatham on Wednesday, a non-conference bout at Division I foe Saint Francis on Thursday and a PAC matinee against Allegheny on Saturday.
