Story by Tommy Rezac
stjosephpost.com
Pittsburg, KS - Missouri Western men's basketball led by nine points in the first half, trailed by seven in the second, but managed to tie the game at 67-67 and send it to overtime.
Well, two overtimes, actually.
JaRon Thames had two looks at a go-ahead, three-point prayer at midcourt - one at the end of regulation, and the other at the end of the first OT.
Both shots were just off the mark, though, and Pitt State (19-9, 15-7 MIAA) jumped out to a five-point lead in the second OT to hold on for an 86-83 win over the Griffons at John Lance Arena in Pittsburg, KS Saturday.
The game featured 11 lead changes and nine ties. Missouri Western (16-12, 10-12 MIAA) trailed by seven, 58-51, with 5:53 left in regulation, before leading 67-64 in the final minute.
Pitt State's DeShaun English II tied the game on an 'and-one' with 37 seconds left in regulation to ultimately send it to overtime.
Western never led by more than a point in the first OT, and then got down 83-78 to start the second extra period.
The Gorillas, who finished third in the MIAA regular season standings and won 10 of their last 11, went up 85-81 with 15 seconds left on two free throws to put the game on ice.
Pitt State was 25-of-30 at the foul line Saturday. Western was 13-of-19. Pitt State outscored MWSU in the paint 44-30, but the Griffons made 12-of-21 attempts from three compared to just 5-of-16 by Pitt.
Taye Fields put on a spectacular show for Western, scoring a game-high and career-high 32 points on 12-of-19 shooting. He also had a game-high 16 rebounds to log his eighth double-double of the season.
Kiani Saxon had a career day as well, scoring 16 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in his first career double-double in a Griffon uniform.
Jeremy Shaw led four Gorillas in double figures with 25 points to go with nine rebounds.
Missouri Western, despite losing nine of their last 11 games to end the regular season, earned the No. 9 seed in the MIAA tournament.
The Griffons will face No. 8 seed Missouri Southern (13-15) in the first round of tournament play on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. That game is on KFEQ Radio (680, 95.3, 680kfeq.com, KFEQ app).
The winner of that game will then see No. 1 seed Northwest Missouri State (24-4) in quarterfinals on Thursday at 6 p.m.
