Key stops, big shots, and players stepping, up was the best way to describe the Tiger Men's upset of # 5 ranked DMACC in the second game of the night on Wednesday, Jan. 27.
Taking a commanding lead the Tigers lead for almost 31 minutes and 55 seconds of the contest against DMACC before the Bears made an amazing comeback to take the lead and then the back and forth chess match started between these two teams. The Tigers came out of the break with a 43 to 35 lead over the Bears mixing and matching lineups with players being in foul trouble throughout the first half. The Tigers would eventually be outscored in the second half 53 to 47, but it was the key stops and big shots late that allowed the Tigers to pull away.
The Tigers found themselves in a back and forth battle with the Bears for the last four minutes of the game with each team exchanging the lead throughout. It would be the Bears though that would pull ahead with 27 seconds left after the Tigers called timeout to make the contest 88 to 86. It is then, where the Tigers got a strong performance from Deon'ta Lagway and David Roberts Jr. that would ultimately give the Tigers the victory in the end.
Coming out of the timeout the Tigers would put the ball in the hands of Lagway and space the Bears out and allow him to drive and get fouled with 17 seconds to go, and Lagway would make both three throw attempts to tie the game at 88. After a big defensive stop and steal by Roberts Jr. it would set the Tigers up with the final shot with 10.3 seconds to go in the game and again the ball was in Lagway's hands, driving to hit a mid-range jumper that put the Tigers up 90 to 88. A deflected ball would expire time and secure the win.
Though the Tigers got late-game heroics from Lagway and Roberts Jr., with Lagway with 14 points and Roberts Jr. finishing with 19 off the bench. The Tigers also got big help from Leonard Wilson, Ike Sheppard and Di'Ablo Stewart on the contest as well as Rusmir Hamzic, who was charged late with guarding the Bears 6'11 post. Wilson would finish the contest with 17 points shooting 5 of 6 from 3, while Sheppard added 10 points along with 9 rebounds, and Stewart finished with 9 points.
The Tigers travel to Norfolk on Saturday, Jan. 30th to take on the Northeast Hawks at 3 pm.
