By Bob Branan
HUTCHINSON, Kan. – Free throws were the key here Thursday afternoon as Southeastern Illinois subdued Connors State 65-64 in the consolation bracket of the NJCAA national tournament.
Issac McClure’s two free throws with 22.9 seconds remaining gave the Falcons (23-10) the lead and the win. Jarvis Garner had a baseline shot for Connors State with four seconds left, but the attempt missed and Jordan Hickman beat the Cowboys’ C.J. Washington and Garner for the loose ball rebound as time expired.
The winners were 12-of-15 at the line in the final half, while Connors (30-4) was 4-of-6. With five minutes to go in the game, Southeastern had committed only three fouls and was in the double-bonus situation because of 10 Cowboys’ personals. Connors State never reached the one-and-one situation. For the game, Southeastern Illinois was 23-of-29 while the Cowboys were 8-of-13 from the free throw line.
At the midway point of the first half, Garner was fouled and went to the line on a one-and-one situation. He missed the first throw, but there was a lane violation on the Falcons.
Instead of starting the one-and-one procress over, the officials gave Garner only one free throw, which he made.
"How big was that," said Connors’ coach Bill Muse. "We tried to get two different officials to review it but play went on. I should’ve called timeout and demanded they review the streaming video. That’s my fault I didn’t."
Muse said officials told him at the start of the second half that it was on Garner’s second foul shot when the violation occurred.
The game was close throughout. There were eight ties and eight lead changes. Connors fell behind 10-2 at the start, but led by Washington they battled back and went into halftime up 36-33.
The Falcons jumped out to a 37-26 lead just after the start of the second half and went on to a 6-point margin, 46-40, before the Cowboys mounted an 8-2 run to go ahead 50-48 with 10:02 remaining. Back-to-back three-pointers from Corey Wilford and Mark Rutledge put Connors on top.
Southeastern used four free throws to mount a four-point lead, 55-51, at the 8:05 mark. The Cowboys finally caught the Falcons and went up by three, 64-61, with 2:12 remaining on five straight points from Wilford.
McClure had an answer with a layup with 1:55 showing, setting up the finish.
Both teams had misses and a turnover before the final minute of play.
"We’re two and out of this tournament and that at the moment is what our fans are going to remember about our season," Muse said. "In the big picture, we won 30 games and that’s not bad. The way we lost our final two games will eat on all of us."
Washington was particularly dejected.
"We came into this week with so much promise, now our season is over," he said. "We just did not play well, we have to shoulder that."
Washington, who is an All-American candidate, led all scorers with 18 points. He added 14 rebounds. Wilford came off the bench with 12 and Ray Jones added 10.
High scorer for Southeastern was McClure with 17. They had four scorers in double-figures and finished with a 45-33 edge in rebounding. It was the only time this season that CSC has been outrebounded.
