RICHMOND, KY. -- Eastern Kentucky University reserve forward Julian Mascoll hit an eight-foot left-handed rebound shot as the buzzer sounded to give the Colonels a thrilling 74-72 victory over Eastern Illinois University Saturday night in McBrayer Arena.
With the win, EKU moves into a four-way, second-place tie for the Ohio Valley Conference lead with its 9-5 league record. Tennessee Tech, a 70-62 winner over Samford Saturday night, is alone at the top of the OVC standings with a 10-4 record, followed by EKU, Austin Peay, Murray State and Samford at 9-5 with two games to go.
"You go through a season and you need games like this to have a championship year where you don't play particularly well, but you find a way to win in the end. That's exactly what happened tonight," said an ecstatic EKU head coach Travis Ford after the game.
"We played hard, but we weren't very productive. I'm excited about the win and the effort we gave."
With EKU clinging to a 71-70 lead, EKU junior guard Matt Witt went to the free throw line with 10.6 seconds to go for two free throws. He hit the first free throw, but missed the second attempt and EKU's Alonzo Hird was whistled for his fifth foul on the rebound with 9.1 ticks on the clock.
EIU's George Tandy nailed both free throws, tieing the contest at 72-all.
Witt received the inbounds pass crossed the top of the key and penetrated off the right wing and attempted a 16-foot jump shot that bounded high off the rim to Mascoll who caught it in mid-air switched it to his left hand and arched it over Tandy. The ball nestled through the nets as the buzzer sounded.
"We inserted Julian into the game on the free throws by Eastern Illinois at the nine-second mark in case there was a long rebound on a missed attempt," said Ford.
"Little did we know that would payoff on the other end like it did."
EKU could never really shake the Panthers all night long. Eastern led 37-31 at the break and lengthened that margin out to 58-46 with 9:28 left in the game.
But EIU, now 11-14 overall and 6-8 in the conference, made a furious rally, outscoring Eastern Kentucky, 11-2 over the next 3:09 to trim the margin to 60-57 at the 6:19 mark.
EIU cut the lead to one point twice at 66-65 and 68-67 but never tied the game or took the lead until the nine-second mark at 72-72.
Eastern, now 17-8 on the season, was led by a season-high 20 points from Alonzo Hird as he hit 10-11 field goal attempts. He also picked up eight rebounds.
"We don't win tonight without Alonzo Hird. He played very well tonight," said Ford. "Hitting 10-11 from the field is an amazing percentage."
Witt scored 18 points and handed out seven assists, while senior forward Michael Haney picked up his seventh double-double of the season as he scored 13 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.
EKU hit 48.3 percent from the field for the game, but made only 2-19 three-point attempts and just 16-25 free throw tries.
"When we go 2-19 from behind the three-point line, you can tell we struggled," said Ford. "I'm very disappointed in our rebounding and our shot selection tonight."
Eastern Illinois won the rebounding battle, 40-28, paced by eight from Tandy. The Panthers hit 41.2 percent from the field, but made 7-15 threes, led by a 5-9 effort by guard Emanuel Dildy from behind the arc for his 15 points.
EIU guard Josh Gomes tied Hird for game-high honors with 20 points, while Tandy pumped in 12 points.
Eastern Kentucky plays arch-rival Morehead State in Morehead Tuesday (Feb. 22)in a 7:07 p.m. EST televised game by WYMT-TV Hazard that will also be shown on UPN, local channel 99 on Richmond's Adelphia cable televison system.
