Box Score
RENO, Nev. (March 7, 2017) – The Big Sky Conference men’s basketball record book took a beating late Tuesday night.
Records were falling as frequently as shots in Southern Utah’s 109-105 triple-overtime upset of Montana State in a first-round game at the Reno Events Center.
The 11th-seeded Thunderbirds (6-26), who won their first Big Sky postseason game since joining the Big Sky, advanced to the quarterfinals to face third-seeded Weber State on Thursday at 8:05 p.m. PST. Sixth-seeded Montana State ended its season at 16-16.
About those records:
- The 214 combined points broke the tournament record of 207 set by Weber State and Montana State in 1987.
- Thunderbird senior guard Randy Onwuasor’s 43 points broke the tournament’s scoring record of 42 shared by Montana’s Anthony Johnson and Eastern Washington’s Tyler Harvey.
- Montana State’s 18 3-pointers broke the mark of 16 set by Northern Arizona in 2000.
- Onwuasor’s 20 made free throws broke the record of 15 set by Boise State’s Dale Baumus in 1981.
- Montana State’s 49 3-point attempts set a new standard, as did the combined 79 attempts from downtown.
Southern Utah needed to rally from a 15-point, second-half deficit to pull off the stunner that was filled with clutch performances.
Trailing 78-76 with 34 seconds to play after a driving layup by MSU’s Devonte Klines, Onwuasor missed an attempt at a tying bucket, but the T-birds forced a tie ball to regain possession with 14.1 seconds remaining in regulation. James McGee was then fouled on a 3-point attempt and made two to knot the game at 78-78 with 9.2 ticks left. MSU’s Tyler Hall, who nearly matched Onwuasor bucket for bucket with 33 points, missed a potential winner at the buzzer.
The first 5-minute extra session went back and forth with Klines giving the Bobcats a 93-91 lead on a pair of free throws with 9.2 seconds remaining. The Thunderbirds got the ball to Onwuasor, who was fouled by Klines with 2.4 seconds to play. He calmly sank the freebies – he was 20 of 25 for the game – to send the game to a second OT tied at 93-93.
The Bobcats took a six-point lead, 101-95, in the second OT on a pair of 3-pointers by Hall, who was 7 for 18 from deep. But a driving layup by John Marshall, a floater off the window by McGee and another floater by Onwuasor knotted the game at 101-101. Zach Green and Harald Frey missed last-second attempts for the Bobcats.
Will Joyce hit a free throw and followed up a miss to give the T-birds a 104-101 lead midway through the third overtime. After Hall made one free throw, Onwuasor was sent to the line twice more, connecting on all four for a 108-102 lead with 8.7 seconds left, essentially sealing the win.
Cooper Olson’s 3-pointer got the Bobcats within 108-105, but it came with 1.8 seconds to play. Marshall hit one freebie with 0.7 seconds left to end it.
Joyce and McGee backed up Onwuasor with 16 points apiece. Klines finished with 25 for the Bobcats and Frey chipped in 19.