The 16th-ranked and third-seeded University of Southern Indiana men’s basketball team bowed out of the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional after 25th-ranked and sixth-seeded University of Findlay hit a bucket with six seconds left to win 70-69, Saturday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky. USI ends its season with a 25-5 overall mark, while Findlay advances with a 24-6.
The Screaming Eagles came out of the gate cold and slow as the Oilers built a 14-point lead through the first 15 minutes of the game, 24-10. USI could not buy a bucket for six minutes of the half and was shooting under 20 percent as the deficit grew before erupting on a comeback in the final five minutes of the opening half.
The Eagles exploded on a 12-0 run that culminated in cutting the Oiler lead to two points by the intermission, 24-22, when sophomore guard Alex Stein (Evansville, Indiana) hit a pair of free throws with 35 seconds left before halftime.
In the second half, senior guard Bobo Drummond (Peoria, Illinois) took over the game for USI. Drummond, who would score 26 points in the final 20 minutes of his career, propelled the Eagles to an 11-point lead, 47-36, when he hit a three-point bomb with 11:58 left in the game.
Findlay would fight back to with a 19-8 run to tie the game 55-55 with 6:17 left in the contest. In the sprint to the finish, the game would be tied six times and the lead would change hands seven times before the Oilers got the final bucket for the 70-69 win.
The game was a tail of two halves for the Eagles. USI rebounded to shoot 56.3 percent in the final 20 minutes (18-32) after shooting 21.9 percent (7-32) in the first half. The Eagles also outrebounded the Oilers, 44-36, for the game.
Individually, Drummond led the Eagles in scoring with a career-high 31 points. The senior guard was 12-of-20 from the field, six-of-13 from beyond the arc, and one-of-three from the line. Stein followed Drummond in the scoring column with 11 points and a team-best nine assists.
The Eagles finish the season with 25 wins for the 15th time in the history of the program and with their 26th appearance in the NCAA Division II Tournament.
