Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Hatters take down Bears in overtime
CONWAY — A dejected Javion Guy-King walked the ball up the Farris Center court one last time Saturday night as the final seconds wound off the game clock.
Moments earlier, he watched from the bench as the University of Central Arkansas men’s basketball team outscored Stetson 9-2 over the final 2:12 of regulation to force overtime.
But all the momentum his teammates used to get to overtime dissipated in the extra period as UCA was outscored 13-2, falling 73-62 to Stetson.
Jalen Blackmon sunk a layup 12 seconds into overtime to regain the lead for Stetson. Two possessions later, he hit his second three-pointer of the game to give the Hatters a five-point lead.
At that point, UCA (8-17, 4-5 ASUN), which had led for nearly 25 minutes of regulation, began to press on offense. Guy-King, Elias Cato, Daniel Sofield and Tucker Anderson combined to miss the Bears’ first eight shot attempts of overtime before Guy-King’s layup with 16 seconds remaining ended the drought.
“We missed a couple shots, then the pressure just built on our guys and we couldn’t settle down,” UCA Coach Anthony Boone said.
UCA led for the final 17:40 of the first half, but Stetson (14-10, 6-3) went on an 11-2 run to open the second half as it began to slow the pace and attack the Bears’ inside.
Where the Hatters did their damage in the second half was through Blackmon. The junior guard scored 11 points in the second half and then scored the first 11 points of overtime to lead all scorers with 27.
UCA forced Blackmon and the Hatters to methodically move the ball up the court in the first half with pressure from Guy-King, Masai Olowokere and Johannes Kirsipuu. Blackmon had just five points on 2-of-6 shooting at the break.
In the second half, Blackmon found his footing and blew by that pressure to attack the rim and score or draw fouls. He finished 7 of 10 at the free-throw line.
“As long as we could keep him in front of us, then we have guys that are pretty long, so with their long arms, they can make it a little bit tougher for him to shoot over them,” Boone said.
“We did a better job in the first half than we did in the second half of just … getting to his legs a little bit. I think that was a big key in him [Blackmon] not shooting the ball as well as normal.”
The Bears’ overtime lineup featured two freshmen, two transfers and Cato, a returning junior. In UCA’s first overtime of the season, Boone said the loss will act as a learning experience for his team.
“We have to go through it, as frustrating as it is. That’s just the way it is,” Boone said. “We have to go through it with this group. Javion hasn’t gone through it at all. Tucker hasn’t gone through it all. And we’re depending on those guys.”