Men's Basketball Falls in Overtime at AAC Tournament

KINGSPORT, Tenn.- The men's basketball team returned to the floor at the quarterfinals of the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament on Thursday. Looking to prevent the team from advancing in the tournament was the No. 1 seed, the Union College Bulldogs. 

The game was close for the majority of the game as there were 10 ties and 12 lead changes. Amauri Young gave TWU the first lead of the game with his layup. Five minutes into the game, two baskets from Kobe Pride and a score from Ty Hurst helped the team hold an 8-3 lead. The game shifted though as Union scored 20 consecutive points to lead 23-8 with 7:19 left in the first half. Darius Rozier broke the drought with a three-point play, starting a 13-3 scoring rally for the Bulldogs that made the score 26-21 with 3:36 remaining until halftime. Keshawn McPherson hit back-to-back three-pointers and a jump shot during the run while Emmanuel Ndambi hit a pair of free throws. A pair of free throws by Ty Runyan made the score 29-23 in favor of the opponents at the halftime break.

Union held on to the lead out of the halftime break, moving it to double-digits with 16:02 remaining as the scoreboard read 40-30. With 12:24 remaining, Tennessee Wesleyan had battled back to within one point of the lead after scores from Peyton West, Nichaune Jones, and Jay Reed, moving the score to 42-41. The score remained close over the next few minutes with the Bulldogs of TWU moving ahead 50-49 on a Rozier layup. Over the next several minutes, the game saw a few ties, and a few lead changes, but neither team led more than three points until Union broke a 59-59 tie with five straight points to lead by five with 3:52 remaining. The outcome started to look bleak for Tennessee Wesleyan as the opponents held a 70-65 lead with 33 seconds left. Jones hit a three-point basket to cut that down to two points and after fouling on the next possession which resulted in Union missing both the free throws, Rozier recorded an offensive rebound on a three-point miss, completing a layup to tie the game 70-70 to send the game to overtime. 

In the overtime period, Reed gave the Bulldogs a 72-70 lead and Runyan's three-point basket moved the lead to 75-72 with 2:53 remaining. Unfortunately, TWU went scoreless for the remainder of overtime and Union was able to find four points to win the game 76-75.

Tennessee Wesleyan ends the season with a 12-15 overall record.