BARBOURVILLE, Ky. – The blueprint was not necessarily one to follow, but the end result turned out perfect: an 88-83, overtime victory for No. 17 Union College.
The Bulldogs overcame a 22-point, second-half deficit and did not take the lead until overtime. Yet, Union managed to extend its win streak to four with the five-point victory over visiting Asbury University (Ky.) on Tuesday.
Union improves to 4-3 overall with the win, while Asbury falls to 5-4.
ROUGH SLEDDING
Union struggled to get anything going offensively for the first 25 minutes of the contest. After missing its first 10 3-point attempts, Asbury connected on five of its next six from long range in opening up a 36-20 lead with 3:02 left in the first half. Union closed out the period on an 11-4 run to pull within 40-31 at the break.
The Eagles opened the second half on a 13-0 surge to open up a 53-31 cushion with 15:10 remaining.
BEGINNING TO MAKE A RUN
Dane Imel buried a 3-pointer to jumpstart an 11-1 run to pull Union within 54-42 by the 12:41 mark. Still, Asbury maintained a double-digit advantage as it owned a 63-58 lead following a pair of Eric Powell free throws with 9:59 left.
And then, the switch was flipped.
Union pieced together a 17-2 run to tie the game at 65-all with 3:47 left. Jakobe Wharton and Austin Cummins each nailed a 3-pointer during the rally, while the Bulldogs went 9-of-10 at the foul line.
Asbury bounced back and quickly built a five-point lead. Down four, Wharton drained another 3-pointer to make it 73-72 Asbury with 41 seconds to go. Siah Holifield then made 1-of-2 free throws to give the Eagles a two-point edge. Then, with three seconds left, Nick Marshall got the putback to tie the game at 74-all to send the game into overtime.
EXTRA TIME, EXTRA FUN
Asbury took a 77-74 lead with 4:24 to play, yet a Wharton 3 and an old-fashioned, three-point play from Ronnie Carson put Union up 80-77 with 3:40 remaining. This was the Bulldogs’ first lead of the game.
Back-to-back buckets from Marshall helped Union build a five-point lead. Powell made it interesting with a 3-pointer to make it 85-83 Union with 59 seconds still on the clock. However, Union went 3-for-4 at the line down the stretch to lock up the 88-83 victory.
BULLDOG OF THE GAME
While he only played nine minutes, Marshall came up huge late in the game. He scored all seven of his points during the final 5:03 of the game with his first bucket sending the game into overtime. He had four rebounds, including two offensive boards which he turned into four points. Defensively, Marshall came up with a block with 16 seconds to play to keep Union’s lead at 85-83 before the Bulldogs closed out the win at the free-throw line.
STAT OF THE GAME
Union dominated the glass, collecting 71 total rebounds to Asbury’s 45. Carson and Cummins each hauled in a career-high 10 rebounds, while Jakobe Wharton and Jason Carter both had nine boards. Derek Morgan and Jacob Kenney chipped in eight rebounds apiece, and Richard Brown had seven.
BULLDOG NOTES
- Carson poured in a season-high 31 points as he recorded his first double-double of the season.
- Cummins collected his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
- Wharton drained 6-of-13 from behind the arc in racking up 28 points.
- Both teams struggled at the foul line. Union hit 59.4 percent (19-fo-32) from the stripe, while Asbury made 19-of-38 (50 percent).
- This is the first time Union overcame a 20-point deficit since defeating Georgetown College (Ky.) 66-63 on Jan. 13, 2001. Union trailed 60-40 with 10:08 in the second half before rallying for the three-point win over the then-No. 7 Tigers.
NEXT FOR THE BULLDOGS
Union returns to action on Saturday when it visits Montreat College (N.C.) in Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) play. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m.
