Men's Basketball: Bison fall to Cougars in double-overtime thriller

PITTSBURGH – Sixth seeded Bethany College men's basketball team traveled to Pittsburgh for the Presidents' Athletic Conference Quarterfinal round against three seeded Chatham University Tuesday evening. The game would come down to the wire, where the Cougars defeated the Bison, 96-90, in a double-overtime thriller.

GAME FLOW/HIGHLIGHTS

• The first few minutes of the game were a low scoring affair with the game knotted at 13-13 with 12:36 to go in the first half. An 11-5 run swelled the Cougars lead as the offense began to heat up with under 10 minutes to go in the first half. The Bison sparked a run of their own, cutting the deficit to 24-23. Over the latter half of the first half, the Bison and Cougars battled. Bethany would hold the narrow lead, 37-35 heading into the halftime break.
• Over the first six minutes of the second half, the Cougars held momentum to take the lead. Bethany continued to battle while hanging on by a thread. With under five minutes to go, the Bison sparked a 9-3 run to deadlock the game at 68-68 with Will Brooks nailing a free throw with 51 seconds to go. In the final seconds, Bethany would force a turnover but in return hand the ball back to the Cougars forcing overtime.
• In a low scoring overtime period, both teams continued to grind. The first overtime period saw nine points from both teams. The first nine points of overtime were from the free-throw line. As the overtime period began to see time dwindle away, the Cougars held a 77-72 lead. Bethany's Troy Hixson hit a three cutting the deficit to 77-75 with under ten seconds to go. With time running low for the Bison, they needed some magic to happen. A Colin Meany steal and then a Cougar foul would send Meany to the charity stripe with a few ticks on the clock.
• Meany connected on both to send the game into its second overtime.
• Overtime two did not fare well for the Bison. The Cougars outscored the Green and White, 19-13 to seal the victory.

IN THE BOX SCORE

• Bethany was led by Cole Dailey with 21 points and 18 rebounds for his 12 career double-double. He added two assist, two steals and three blocks.
• Tony Fox had 19 points with two steals while Colin Meany added 18 points and four assists.
• Will Brooks rounded out the scorers in double-digits with 11 and had a team-high six assists.  

BY THE NUMBERS

• Chatham finished the game shooting 40.8 percent from the field while holding Bethany to 36.3 percent.
• Bethany shot 82.1% from the foul line (23-28) while Chatham went 74.3% (26-35).
• The Cougars out rebounded the Bison 55-50.
• There were 11 ties and 12 lead changes. The Bison led for 7:06 of the game and their last lead was with 3:28 to go in the first overtime.

NOTEABLES

• Sophomore Cole Dailey currently ranks third all-time on Bethany's blocked shots list with 115. He sits behind British Alexander (122) and Matt Drahos (132).
• Tony Fox finished the season with 64 steals.

RECORDS

Bethany College – 9-17 (8-12 PAC)

Chatham University – 18-8 (15-5 PAC)

UP NEXT

With the loss, the Bison conclude their 2023-24 season.