Griffins Bounce Back With Victory Over Beavers

ST. LOUIS, Mo.—The Fontbonne University men's basketball team bounced back in a big way on Wednesday night with an 80-77 win over Blackburn to split the regular season series.

With the game tied at 75-75, the Griffins had the ball with under a minute left. Luke DeLine missed his 3-point attempt, but Carter Otwell went to work down low as he grabbed the offensive board and scored the put-back to give Fontbonne a 77-75 lead with 35.0 seconds remaining.

After Blackburn missed its game tying attempt with 10.0 seconds left, the Griffins got a bucket from Jared Woodcock to put Fontbonne ahead 79-75.

The Beavers tried to make it interesting late, but the Griffins were able to fend off the comeback attempt for the three-point win.

The Griffins (9-13; 7-8 SLIAC), finished with a 46.7 field goal percentage and they were led by Jared Woodcock's double-double performance of 20 points and 11 boards. Otwell netted 13 points, while Gus Kleekamp and Luke DeLine had 12 and 10 points, respectively.

The Beavers (11-10; 8-7 SLIAC), shot 35.6 percent from the field and drained 14 3-pointers. Karson Hayes had himself an evening with a game-high 30 points on 10-of-22 shooting.

In the first, the Griffins opened with an 18-13 lead at the 10:47 mark. Over the next four minutes, the Beavers hung around and eventually took a 24-23 lead on Hayes' 3-pointer at 6:29.

The two teams flip-flopped lead changes four times as the clock continued to tick away, but a bucket from Caden Clark gave Fontbonne a 33-32 lead with 2:05 to go, which made it five lead changes in four minutes.

The team closed out the final two minutes on a 6-0 run and headed into the locker room on top, 39-32. Fontbonne shot 46.4 percent from the field and were led by DeLine's nine points.

In the second, the Beavers came out on fire going 7-of-10 from the field in four minutes and thirty two seconds to grab a 50-45 advantage on Chanz Aldridge's 3-pointer.

With 12:54 left in regulation, the Beavers got a 3-pointer from Hayes to make it a 55-51 outing. However, Fontbonne answered with a 10-0 run in just two minutes and 32 seconds to take a 61-55 lead on Kris McCann's layup.

The Beavers went on to regain the lead with 1:51 left on Hayes' jumper, but a 6-0 run by Fontbonne proved to be enough as they went on for the win.

The team returns to action on the road against Eureka on Saturday. Tip-off at 3 p.m.

Fans make sure to stay updated on fontbonnegriffins.com throughout the year for full updates and recaps on the men's basketball team.

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