by PointGuard » Thu Mar 07, 2019 12:49 am
Buzzer Beater?
By Steve Porter
The Penguins turned the ball over on their first 3 possessions in their game against visiting Texas-El Paso. Coach KD Durst was up and visibly agitated. During the first time out, he could be heard yelling at his team. The team soon after began to gel and gradually began pulling away from the Miners, opening an 11 point lead with about 5 minutes left in the half. But the Miners came back when the refs sent them to the line repeatedly and closed the gap to 35-32 when time expired for the first half. YSU held Texas-El Paso’s shooting to 32%, but were outscored by 10 points at the line in the half by the Miners. C Will O’Neil scored 9 and SF/SG James Asbury added 8.
Coach Durst obviously lit a fire under his team during the intermission and they responded by building a 12 point lead at 50-38 after just 5 minutes of play in the 2nd half. As the refs continued to parade UTEP players to the line, Coach Durst was called for a technical. The Miners stubbornly fought their way back into the game and with 1:30 to play tied the game at 69-69. On YSU’s subsequent possession, PG Pat White worked the ball inside to C Will O’Neil who took his man to the basket and muscled a shot up and in to make it 71-69. With 40 seconds to go, UTEP dropped in two free throws to again tie the game at 71-71. The Miners then stole the ball and scored to go ahead by 2 with 9 seconds on the clock. Pat White quickly brought the ball up across center court, shot the ball over to Asbury who fired it to Colin Chambliss. Chambliss pumped up a desperation shot from 30 feet a tenth of a second before the buzzer sounded. The ball settled through the net to give the Penguins a stunning 74-73 win. The Penguins bench and home crowd surged onto the court to celebrate. George Towns, UTEP’s coach, contended the shot was put up too late, but the officials reviewed the video and upheld their decision. After the game, Town’s said, “I still think the ball was on Chambliss’ fingertips when the buzzer sounded, but the hometown crowd’s reaction flooding the court prevented the officials from overturning their call.” UTEP scored 17 more points than YSU at the line which was nearly enough to torpedo the Penguins.
C Will O’Neil scored 18, SF/SG James Asbury finished with 16, and SF Colin Chambliss added 10. PG Pat White didn’t score but had 10 assists.
Coach KD Durst said, “You gotta give the Miners a lot of credit for never giving up. We were exceptionally lucky to win this game. Colin’s shot will be the highlight of the week on ESPN.” When asked about his team’s success this season, Durst replied, “Its great to still be undefeated, but we’re going to have to play a heckuva lot better than we did tonight if we want to win either of our two remaining pre-conference games. We came real close to letting this game get away from us. We sent the Miners to the line 41 times tonight…that’s normally a recipe for disaster.”
The 7-0 Penguins have two road games at Ball State and UNLV before Horizon League play begins after Christmas. Youngstown State is unranked in the polls but now has the 30th best RPI in the nation.
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