Miscues in critical moments lead to QU men’s basketball team letting chance to win evaporate

QUINCY — It was another game the Quincy University men’s basketball team felt like it let slip away.

The Hawks managed just one field goal in the final four minutes and turned the ball over with a chance to tie in the waning seconds Saturday afternoon, allowing Truman State to erase an eight-point deficit and escape with an 80-76 victory in a Great Lakes Valley Conference game in Pepsi Arena.

The loss was the second straight heartbreaker at home and the fourth by four or fewer points this season for QU, which dropped to 8-10 overall and 3-7 in the GLVC despite a 27-point performance by guard Camren Kincaid.

“So many games are decided by a possession or two,” Hawks coach Brady Hoyt said. “I thought our execution in the last two minutes wasn’t good enough and they made plays. You get beat in this league when that happens.”

After the second of two free throws by Trey Shearer rattled in and out with 24.3 seconds left and the Bulldogs on top 78-76, QU advanced the ball to midcourt and called a timeout with 17.7 seconds to go.

Seeing an opening, guard Ethyn Brown drove hard off a screen to the lane and appeared to have an open look at a potential tying basket before defenders closed in when his right leg buckled, forcing him to toss the ball underhanded well short of the rim as he was falling down.

Cassen Lawrence snared the ball out of the air and whipped an outlet pass to Kobi Williams streaking down the court for a layup with 4 seconds remaining to seal it.

“I thought we could get Ethyn going downhill,” Hoyt said of the play. “He made a read and got two feet in the paint, which was good. You try to plant your feet a little bit and it goes the other way.

“We feel like we let one slip through our hands.”

Truman State (11-7, 5-5 GLVC) used an early 3-point barrage to open a 25-14 lead eight minutes into the game. Five of its first eight made field goals came from behind the arc.

The Hawks began to close the gap behind the hot hand of Kincaid, who made all five shots, including three 3-pointers, in the first half. He sank 10 of 12 field goal attempts and all four 3-point tries overall in his best performance of the season.

“I knew we wouldn’t win this game without me playing confident and being the player that everyone pushes and expects me to be,” the 6-foot-3 junior from Springfield Lanphier said. “I wanted to come out confident. I made a few shots early and I got it going, so I just stayed aggressive.”

Brown tied the score at 32 with a 3-pointer from the right corner with 4:55 left in the half. He turned a steal into a layup seconds later, and followed that with two free throws at the 4:15 mark to put the Hawks up 36-32.

QU led 40-37 at halftime and stretched the advantage to 53-43 with 12:47 to go on Brown’s jumper from the left baseline. The junior from Belleville East finished with 17 points.

The Bulldogs twice closed within a point, but a driving layup and free throw after being fouled by Eil Sieger and a 3-pointer from the left wing by Brown with 4:17 to go pushed the Hawks’ lead to 72-64.

That’s when things began to go sideways.

“Offensively, I feel like we kind of got away from what got us the lead,” Kindcaid said. “On the defensive end, we just weren’t getting stops and they went on their run.”

Two deep 3-pointers by Lawrence, who scored 13 points off the bench, and a jumper from the lane off an inbound pass by Landon Eiland tied the score at 72 with 2:39 left.

Logan Robbins hit the second of two free throws at the 2:07 mark to put QU back on top, but Williams answered with a 3-pointer from the right corner and Xavier Hall sank two free throws after the Hawks failed to capitalize on the offensive end to give Truman State a 77-73 lead with 43.4 seconds remaining.

The Bulldogs made 13 of 31 attempts from 3-point range and sank 17 of 20 tries from the free-throw line, including 13 of 16 in the second half. The Hawks, meanwhile, hit 11 of 27 shots from behind the arc and went to the line just 10 times, making nine.

Kincaid put his head down and drove the lane for a layup and was fouled with 26 seconds left. His free throw pulled QU within 77-76 to set the stage for the finish that came up short.

“I think it’s pretty clear that when we’re at our best, we share it and get the ball in different people’s hands,” Hoyt said. “We probably had a 22- or 23-minute stretch where we did a good job of that offensively and then we had the right group in defensively, as well.

“We have enough minutes to be good enough to win a lot of games, but when you have enough minutes to not be good enough is where you end up coming up on the wrong side.”

Hall paced the Bulldogs with 19 points and Williams added 17.

After securing just one win in a four-game homestand, the Hawks will try to get back to the .500 mark when they play at Southwest Baptist on Thursday and at Rockhurst on Saturday.

“The last two games haven’t gone our way for whatever reason, but we can’t dwell on the losses,” Kincaid said. “We have to stay in the moment and keep working. We have to bounce back and win all the games we have left.”