WEBSTER GROVES, Mo. – Centre men's basketball earned its first victory of the 2021-22 season, coming back from an 11-point deficit in the second half to force overtime against the Westminster (Mo.) Blue Jays, and then dominating the Blue Jays in the overtime period to win 76-67.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS
- Centre raced out to an early five-point lead following a three-pointer by
Jalen Williams and a layup by
RJ Smith.
- The Blue Jays took control for the next five minutes, scoring 14 straight points to go up 18-9 and never trailing again for the rest of the first half.
- The Colonels rallied before halftime as five points from
Carter Baughman and two free throws from
Dustin Gerald cut a ten-point Westminster lead to 34-29 at the break.
- In the second half, the Jays extended the lead to its widest margin at 42-31 before Centre slowly began to chip away at the lead.
- Gerald made consecutive buckets in the paint, Baughman nailed a three and
Noah Ring hit a driving layup to cut the lead to 50-49. Smith made back to back layups to cap off the 11-0 run and put Centre back on top for the first time since the five-minute mark in the first half.
- The two teams traded free throws down the stretch until another basket down low by Gerald gave Centre a 61-58 advantage with just under three minutes left.
- Both offenses went cold over the next two minutes before Westminster's Jaxon Althaus connected on a three with 32 seconds to go to tie the score at 61-61, where it remained until the end of regulation.
- In the overtime period, Smith set the tone with a bucket in the paint on Centre's first offensive possession. Williams got a steal and then buried a three at the end of the shot clock. Baughman then hit consecutive threes to put the Colonels up by seven and they never looked back as Williams and Gerald were perfect from the line in overtime to thwart the Blue Jays' comeback attempt.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Gerald finished with a career high 22 points to lead all players. Baughman (19), Smith (14) and Williams (11) all finished in double digits for Centre as well.
- The Colonels finished a perfect 12-12 at the charity stripe for the game.
- Centre did not miss a shot in the entire overtime period, going 4-4 from the field, 3-3 from three-point range and 4-4 from the line to put the game away.
UP NEXT
The Colonels will wrap up tournament play at Webster as they face the host Webster Gorloks at 4 PM on Saturday.
