TAHLEQUAH – Hours after cracking the national polls for the first time in six years, Missouri S&T served No. 24 Northeastern State a gut-checking 76-75 loss Tuesday evening inside the NSU Event Center.
After opening the game with ten unanswered, Northeastern State led as many as 21-points, but the Miners rained down ten second-half treys to surge by the RiverHawks who are now 9-2 overall.
A three-pointer with just inside four seconds remaining by S&T's CJ Hedgepeth served as the dagger for the Miners to complete to what seemed like an improbable road win.
"The only thing that could have beat us on the last possession was a three, we can't let that happen," said head coach
Mark Downey. "We tried to switch everything and make them shoot a two, and a kid rolls up and makes a play. We can't come to that position, it's like the kiss of death; it happens all the time."
"We had a big lead in the first half, and then they start to get hot, they're playing with reckless abandon, and they make some shots and next thing you know, you lose the game. We've got to be tougher than that, we've got to make plays, we've got to make plays down the stretch and get a stop, and we didn't"
Aaron Givens recorded his second double-double of the season with a career-high 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Caleb Smith and
Iain McLaughlin both had 11 points, and
Kendrick Thompson had ten.
The Miners (3-4) led for just 1:02 and shot 50.9-percent from the field. In the second half, they were 17-for-29. Northeastern State out-rebounded the Miners by six with 31 but shot 45.8-percent from the field. After going 7-for-13 at the arc in the first half, they were 1-for-7 the rest of the way.
Northeastern State closes out 2019 with a Green Country battle against Rogers State (10-1, 2-0 MIAA) this Friday at 7:30 p.m. inside the Event Center.
"It's a tough task, we're going to get their best, and Justin Barkley played here, this is going to be a big game for him as always, and it's a league game now, and they're 10-1 and not ranked and probably feeling like they should be, and we did get ranked and let this one slip by. It will be a huge game on Friday night, and we'll see what we're about," added Downey.
