LATROBE, Pa. (Dec. 30) – The Saint Vincent College men's basketball team was defeated 72-70 in overtime by visiting McDaniel College in a Friday matinée at the Robert S. Carey Student Center.
McDaniel (5-3) closed the second half on a 20-9 run to come back from a five-point halftime deficit and force overtime, before outscoring Saint Vincent (7-5) 10-8 in the extra session.
Four players scored in double figures for Saint Vincent, led by Jaden Gales, who scored a game-high 21 points and added 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. In his Saint Vincent College debut, Mike Iuzzolino scored 17 points, highlighted by a game-high five three-pointers, while Tayler McNeal added 13 points and Shemar Bennett scored 10 to go with 10 boards for his sixth double-double of the year.
The two teams traded baskets in the opening five minutes of play, before an Osyon Jones layup gave SVC its first lead of the day, 10-8, with 14:21 left. The hosts would remain in front for the rest of the half, with Iuzzolino's three with 12:19 left pushing the advantage to 16-10, but the Green Terror answered to cut the deficit to one on three different occasions over the next four minutes.
Leading 24-23, a pull-up jumper by SVC's Andrew Reed keyed a 7-0 run, capped off with a Gales three-pointer with 3:49 left that increased his team's lead to 33-23. The Green Terror looked to seize the momentum heading into the break, closing the half on a 7-2 run to cut the Bearcat advantage to 35-30 at the intermission.
Over the opening 20 minutes, the Bearcats shot 49 percent from the field (14-29) and connected on five three-pointers, while limiting the Green Terror to just a 39 percent field goal percentage (13-33) and a 2-for-10 showing from behind the arc.
The opening minute of the second half saw McNeal cash in on a layup and Iuzzolino hit his fourth three of the night to open up a 40-32 lead with 19 minutes left. As was the case in the opening frame, McDaniel continued to answer back, eventually cutting the gap to 44-40 with just under 12 minutes remaining.
A driving layup by Bennett with 11:26 left kickstarted a 7-2 Saint Vincent run, which also included a long three from Iuzzolino and a highlight-reel alley-oop dunk by Gales off of an Iuzzolino pass from just inside half court, to open up a nine-point advantage, 51-42, with 8:28 to go.
The tide would quickly turn the way of the Green Terror, who countered with an 11-2 run to tie the game at 53-all with 4:43 remaining. Buckets from McNeal and Bennett gave the lead back to SVC, 57-55, with 2:28 to go, before the Green Terror's Charles Contee connected on a three from the top of the key to put his team up 58-57 with 1:54 to go, their first lead since the 16:07 mark of the first half.
Gales took the lead right back for Saint Vincent, blocking a shot underneath and going coast-to-coast for a fast break layup to make it 59-58 with 1:07 left. On the ensuing McDaniel possession, McNeal came up with a steal, drew a foul and made both freebies to push the SVC lead to 61-58 with 44 seconds left.
The Green Terror scored on its next trip to make it a one-point game, before McNeal would go 1-for-2 from the line to put SVC up 62-60 with 19 seconds left. Two free throws from McDaniel tied it at 62 seconds later, and neither team would find the basket over the final 15 seconds to send the game into an extra session.
Gales scored four points in the first 65 seconds of overtime to give SVC a 66-65 lead with 3:55 to go, but the Bearcats would then scoreless over the next two minutes, allowing McDaniel to open up a 69-66 advantage with 1:41 to go. Gales twice cut the deficit to one point over the next minute, with a layup with 1:20 left making it 69-68 and a coast-to-coast dunk making it 71-70 with 15 seconds to go. Following a timeout, McDaniel made one of two attempts at the foul line to take a two-point lead with five seconds left, and a last-second three-point attempt by the Bearcats fell short.
Saint Vincent committed only seven turnovers while forcing 13, while the Bearcats shot a respectable 44 percent from the field and made seven three-pointers to McDaniel's five. However, SVC struggled at the foul line, going 7-for-22, while they were outrebounded 45-38.
McNeal paced SVC with three assists, while Gales had a team-leading two blocked shots and Diego Martinez two steals.
Like Saint Vincent, McDaniel also had a balanced scoring effort, with four players recording at least 12 points. Jonas Sujeta led the way with 16 points and Kevin Connelly 15, while Contee scored 12 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.
Saint Vincent will open 2023 by returning to Presidents' Athletic Conference play, traveling north to take on Thiel College at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 3.
