Quincy, MA- The Men's Basketball team played a wild one Saturday afternoon, taking on the Eastern Nazarene Lions at the Lahue Center. Each team owned a lead as big as 13 points, but it was the Falcons who came away with this one, defeating the home team 74-72 at the buzzer. The Falcons are no stranger to close games as this was their fifth game that has been decided by three points or less, and their second buzzer beater, this time coming out on the winning end.
With the Falcons up by as many as 14 in the second half, the Lions clawed their way back in and eventually took the lead back with four minutes left to play. The Falcons took the lead right back though, knocking down three straight 3's to go up 71-67 with 1:12 left in the contest, two from Jhalen Lumpkins (Sacramento, CA) and the other from Jason Augliera (Discovery Bay, CA). ENC quickly knotted the game at 72 a piece on a Josh Rice lay-up with eight seconds left on the clock forcing a Coach Blouin time out. As he has done numerous times this season, Lumpkins answered the call for his team with the game on the line. With six seconds remaining, Kyle Williams (Fairfield, CA) inbounded the ball to Lumpkins who dribbled his way down the left side of the court. He continued to drive, finding an opening through the lane to nail a lay-up at the buzzer. His 24th point of the night propelled his team to the 74-72 victory.
Aside from his 24 points, Lumpkins tallied four rebounds and four steals, his 4th game of 20+ points. Paul Oha Jr. (Antioch, CA) finished with 10 points and eight boards, while Williams had a balanced game adding nine points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals in the win. Rice led the way for Eastern Nazarene contributing 18 points in the losing effort. Three other Lions; Garrett Crandall, Noah Cheney and Christian Garcia all added 11 points as well.
The Falcons are now 5-4 on the season, while the Lions fall to 3-6.