It was a wild finish at Heiges Fieldhouse on Shippensburg University's campus as the Chestnut Hill College Men's Basketball team overcame a 14-point second half deficit to defeat the Raiders 71-69 Monday night.
The Griffins improve to 2-2 with the win. The Raiders fall to 1-3.
IV Pettit (6-17 FG, 5-10 3FG) and Alejandro Redondo Cybak (8-14 FG) led the Griffins with 19 points apiece. Cybak added 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Noah Charles added ten points and Omari Salvi chipped in nine. Neal Hill had 12 rebounds and four assists. Charles also dished out four assists.
Trailing 55-41 with 11:46 left, the Griffins went on a 12-0 run over a 3:20 span to reduce the raider lead to just two points 55-53. Shippensburg went back up by seven 63-56 with 5:42 left before the Griffins began their final push, tying the game with seven straight points following an IV Pettit three point field goal and taking their first lead of the second half on another Pettit three ball with just 36 seconds left, 68-67.
SU's Marcus Frank (32 points) put the Raiders back on top 69-68 with 21 seconds left. Following a timeout, Griffins' coach Andrew Radomicki drew up a play that found Salvi wide open for a three-pointer from the right side giving Chestnut Hill a 71-69 lead with just four seconds left.
The Raiders quickly drove through the Chestnut Hill defense as Jaydon Smith put up a layup attempt and was fouled. The call was originally a goal-tending call and a foul which would have tied the game and given the Raiders a chance to win it with a free throw. After review the goal-tending call was waived off and the Raiders had two free throws to tie. Smith missed the first and then intentionally missed the second as the ball went out of bounds giving the Raiders one last chance with 0.4 seconds left. Franks' jumper hit the front of the rim, and the Griffins held on for the victory.
Prior to the Griffins taking the lead in the waning seconds of the second half, their last lead came in the first half as they jumped out to an 8-3 advantage in the first 4:15 and still led by one 12-11 at the 11:32 mark when the Raiders took their first lead on a Frank dunk with 11 minutes left and used a 23-9 run to take a 34-21 lead with 2:04 left.
The Griffins cut the lead to eight by halftime and pulled within three several times in the second half before the Raider used a 14-4 run to take their biggest lead at 14 points. From there, the Griffins began their comeback.
For the game, the Griffins shot 36.8% (25-68) while the Raiders shot (44.8%). The Griffins made ten three point field goals while holding the Raiders to just three and produced an efficient 11-for-13 effort from the free throw line (84.6%) (SU 6-11 – 54.5%).
The men's basketball team returns to action on Saturday for their home opener against Adelphi University . Tipoff is set for 3:00 p.m.
