The men’s basketball team continues their early season struggles after dropping their latest game against Marian University in overtime. The Cougars are looking to turn it around and string together some wins as they draw closer to the end of the first half of the season.
Junior Jaeden King led the team in points (23) and rebounds (9), and senior Joshua Evans led in steals and assists with three each.
Saint Xavier faced off against 11-ranked Marian University on Saturday the 27. Despite struggling at some points 10 games into the season, they gave the nationally ranked team a hard fight until the end. MU eventually crawled away with a low-scoring, one-point victory in OT.
The Cougars outscored the Knights 26-24 in the first half, and it was clear the schools would be in a nail biter until the final seconds.
The second half of the game carried over the energy from the first half with back and forth scoring. In total, the game had 11 ties and four lead changes.
Regulation wouldn’t end without a last second, heart stopping jumpshot from senior Maurice Chambers. Unfortunately the shot didn’t fall and Marian outscored the Cougars 30-28 and regulation ended in a tie.
Moving into the five minute overtime, both teams knew scoring would be needed quickly and as often as possible with help from their respective defenses. Overtime saw strong defense but there were only five combined points in the five minutes.
Marian University struck first with a free throw to give them a one point advantage. A minute later the Knights scored again on a layup from Malek Evans and suddenly the Cougars were looking at a three point deficit and a winding down clock.
Evans made a layup with just over a minute remaining to put SXU within one, but that would be the end of both offenses for the day.
The Cougars look to bounce back on December 1 against Trinity Christian College. Tip off is scheduled for 7p at The Shannon Center.
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