Tiger Men's Basketball Drops Overtime Thriller At Asbury

WILMORE, KY – Wittenberg and Asbury battled through 40 minutes of regulation and five minutes of overtime - in a game that featured nine ties and 16 lead changes along the way - before the host team got the best of things in the closing seconds as Asbury secured a 77-76 victory over Wittenberg.

The Tigers were playing without leading scorer Trey Killens (Cincinnati, OH / Mason) after he suffered a concussion near the end of last week's game against Hope. While Wittenberg certainly missed Killens, plenty of other players stepped up in his absence, especially down the stretch of regulation as the Tigers rallied from a deficit as great as seven points inside of seven minutes left in the game.

After Asbury scored with about one minute remaining to force overtime, the Tigers jumped out to a four-point lead in the extra session, going up 71-67. The Eagles tied things up at 73 with 2:04 remaining, but Wittenberg built another three-point lead, all on free throws. Asbury had the final answers, however, hitting a pair of lay-ups in the final 1:04 and then forcing a last-second miss by the Tigers.

The loss evens Wittenberg's record at 2-2 on the season. Asbury, which led more than 60 percent of the game, improves to 2-4 overall.

The biggest lead of the game was with 6:30 remaining in the first half when the Eagles enjoyed a 29-11 advantage. Witt went on a 15-8 run to come within four at 37-33 before heading to the locker room at the half.

Witt grabbed a 40-39 lead with 18:16 remaining in the second half. But the two teams went back and forth until a three-pointer and a jumper gave Asbury a quick seven-point lead with less than seven minutes to play. However, the Tigers went on a 16-9 run to leave the game in a tie at 67-all in regulation and forcing the overtime.

Tyler Galluch (Springfield, OH/Catholic Central) led Wittenberg in scoring with a career-high 26 points, followed by Cameron Harrison (Eaton, OH/National Trail) with 19 points, and Eddie Brown (Lewis Center, OH / Olentangy Orange) with 16. Dawson Scott (New Castle, IN / New Castle) led the team in rebounds with nine and Cal Bavineau (Dexter, MI / Dexter) had five assists in his first career starting assignment.

Team totals for Wittenberg included going 26-of-56 (46.4%) from the field, including 10-of-27 from three-point range (37%). The Tigers scored 26 points in the paint, and they finished with 10 points off turnovers the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

Asbury, which is in its first year as an official member of NCAA Division III, was led by Ben McNew with 27 points and Cam Jones with 20. Scott Shepherd had a team-high 10 rebounds. Asbury shot 48.3 percent from the field (29-of-60), including a sizzling 10-of-21 from three-point range (47.6 percent).

Next up for Wittenberg is another road trip, this one at Mount St. Joseph on Wednesday, Nov. 27, followed by a visit to Wilmington on Sunday, Dec. 1.