Griffins fall to Blackburn in free-throw battle

St. Louis, Mo. - Fontbonne men's basketball was down by 14 points near the end of the first half but found a way to tie the game 59-59 in a second-half surge.

A Blackburn steal led to an easy layup for a short lead but Fontbonne's Ben Kissing drained a three-pointer to answer. A costly technical foul by Jared Greenlee allowed Blackburn to go up by five points. The Griffins managed to tied the game again, this time 69-69 with 6:30 remaining. Kissing then recorded his fourth trey of the night and gave Fontbonne a 77-75 advantage with 3:10 to play, but Blackburn's Jamie Moore wasn't having it. Moore punched in back-to-back buckets from long range for a Beaver three-point lead with just over a minute and a half left. Greg Gentry raced down the court after Kissing pulled in a defensive rebound and found Richard Dorhauer wide open for the final three-pointer of the game. Dorhauer's connection cut Blackburn's lead to four points but Fontbonne ran out of time with only 18 seconds remaining and were forced to foul.

For Fontbonne Kissing finished with 24 points, Dorhauer 18, Tyler Williams 13 and Gentry 11. Blackburn committed their 10th second-half foul with just over eight minutes to play, usually a detriment, but the Griffins went 25-for-43 at the free-throw line.

Fontbonne travels to Iowa Wesleyan this Saturday, December 5th for a 3 p.m. contest and returns home the following weekend to go up against SLIAC opponent Spalding University.