Bowling Green State University
South Alabama
Hamblet Layup At Buzzer Gives BGSU A 65-64 Win
November 25, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 25, 2006
Final Stats | Quotes | Notes
Bowling Green, Ohio - Junior Ryne Hamblet's four-foot runner bounced in off the rim as time expired to give BGSU, 2-2, a 65-64 win over defending Sun Belt champion South Alabama, 4-2, Saturday at Anderson Arena.
"The original play was to get [Martin] Samarco open for a shot, but we couldn't get him open, so I just tried to take it to the rim as far as I could," said Hamblet. "Then while I was on my back I saw it hanging on the rim and when it went in I just put my arms up."
The visiting Jaguars regained the lead 64-63 with nine seconds remaining on a pair of free throws by Brandon Davis. The Falcons nearly lost the ball out of bounds with 4.7 seconds left, setting up the game's final sequence where Hamblet drove the lane on the left side and put his shot off the glass where it rimmed in.
"I thought the key to the game was the ball falling on the right side of the rim and not the left side," said BGSU head coach Dan Dakich. "Everything else didn't matter. We got a long way to go and we got to keeping working at it. Our own sloppiness put us in a bad spot, but like I said we just have to get better and I'm glad that the ball fell on the right side so at least this week we can breath a little bit and let the guys feel good, which is incredibly important."
The Falcons led most of the game but could not put away USA.
BGSU built a 17-7 lead in the first half, but saw the Jaguars slowly climb back into the game. A pair of free throws by Davis at the end of the first half cut the lead to 30-29 as BGSU went into the locker room with a one-point advantage.
BGSU also used back-to back triples by sophomore's Dusan Radivojevic and Darryl Clements to post a 36-30 advantage early in the second half. The Falcons poised again to put some distance between the two teams when senior Martin Samarco, who finished with a game-high 23 points to give BGSU a 47-39 edge with 12:59 to go.
The Jaguars would score the next 10 points and led 49-47 on a layup by Stephen Cowherd with 9:50 to go. USA would build its biggest lead of the second half on a layup by Kenny Hooks with 4:19 to go.
BGSU would score the next five points, a three-pointer by Samarco and a layup by sophomore Erik Marschall with 3:26 left as the Falcons led 57-56. Marschall would finish 10 points and six rebounds, his second-straight double-digit effort.
After Demetric Bennett gave the visitors a one-point lead, Samarco hit a pair of charity tosses and the Falcons would hold on its next two defensive possessions.
Radivojevic would hit two free throws with 1:56 to go to make it 61-58 for BGSU and after USA made one of two free throw attempts on its next trip down the floor, senior Matt Lefeld would hit a short jump hook and the Falcons led 63-59 with 54 seconds left. Lefeld would finish with a season-high 12 points off the bench.
Bennett would nail a three-pointer from the corner to cut the lead to 63-62 and then Samarco missed the front end of a one-and-one situation and later fouled Davis with nine seconds to go setting up the final outcome.
"Our biggest thing was just to come out and be a scrapping team that didn't give up," said Lefeld. "We had to play with a sense of desperation and that was our biggest game plan, to play like a team that needed to prove something because we haven't won a game in this place that meant something in a long time and we were able to do that."
The Falcons will host Troy next Saturday at 2 p.m.
