By Kyle Taylor
Bacone College’s basketball teams look to build off the momentum of a pair of last-second wins tonight at home against Red River Conference rival Jarvis Christian.
It turned out to be a night of thrilling finishes for both the Bacone Warriors and Lady Warriors Saturday night at the Palmer Center.
With Paul Quinn leading 73-71 in the men’s game with 4.6 seconds left, the Warriors inbounded and with time running out, Chad Tyler was able to get off a last second 40-foot shot attempt.
He banked it in and Bacone (8-13) walked away with a 74-73 victory.
Tyler, who shot 10 of 17 from the field, said he just launched it up there and put it in God’s hands.
“I just had faith,” he said. “I knew I was going to make it when I got it off.”
Bacone coach Alan Foster said he’s glad that something like this happened to Tyler.
“Chad is as good of a kid as there is, he’s quiet and doesn’t say a lot,” Foster said. “If there’s anybody in our locker room that deserves that, it’s him.”
Tyler finished with 30 points, and Ronnie Battle rebounded from a five-point performance on Thursday to drop in 28 points and 11 rebounds.
Foster said that he knew someone besides Battle would have to step up against Paul Quinn.
“He (Chad) answered the call,” he said. “Ronnie had a big game, and I don’t want to take it for granted, but we’re kind of to the point where we expect him to do those kind of things.”
Bacone women 57, Paul Quinn 56
Not to be outdone, the Lady Warriors had their own dramatic ending to their 57-56 victory of the Lady Tigers.
With nine seconds to go and Paul Quinn up 56-55, Bacone got the rebound on a missed free throw and Janice Davis did the rest.
As time was running out, she juked and jived her way down court and laid it in with 2.1 seconds left.
The Lady Tigers couldn’t get the inbounds past mid court and the Lady Warriors (8-14) survived.
Bacone coach Robbie Shay said rather than use a timeout, he decided to let his team play it out.
“A lot of times on a free throw that’s missed like that, there’s a lot of confusion on the defensive side,” he said. “So I just let them go. The good thing is that nobody picked her up.”
Davis led Bacone with 12 points, and Melissa Hernandez added nine of her own.
