Box Score JACKSON, Miss. -- Despite a huge effort from
Sam Kohnke, Men's Basketball falls to Birmingham-Southern in a close, overtime thriller 68-69.
This game featured a prolific and at times unfriendly whistle from the referees, with both teams combining for 63 fouls to shoot over 80 free throws. The first half was tilted heavily in Birmingham-Southern's favor, despite them shooting 20 free throws and only making seven. Millsaps was cold early, only shooting 9-28 from the field and amassing 11 turnovers facing BSC's pressure heavy defense.
A huge second half by
Sam Kohnke turned the game around however, as he racked up 21 points on 7-11 shooting from the field and 5-7 from downtown to give Millsaps the lead late. He was joined in scoring by
Buck Blanz, who put up 12 points on 10-10 shooting from the free throw line. That duo combined for 33 of Millsaps 35 second half points and were instrumental in Millsaps taking a late lead and having a chance to win the game down the stretch. The Majors were up four with 15 seconds left, and a couple of inbounds turnovers and foul calls by the refs turned the game and gave BSC the opportunity to win/tie the game at the free throw line. BSC split the free throws and the game went into overtime.
Overtime was also dominated by ref whistles, with both teams only combined to shoot 1-12 from the field and scoring a large majority of their OT points from the free throw line. Down the stretch of OT, Millsaps went 6-10 from the line and BSC went 4-6, and BSC was able to make just enough free throws to take the victory 69-68.
Individually,
Sam Kohnke led all scorers with 29 points, nine rebounds, five threes, four assists, and three steals on 10-23 shooting from the field. Blanz was behind him with 17 points and nine rebounds on 10-12 free throw shooting. Balanced scoring made up the rest of Millsaps effort, with
Saxton Becker being the third leading scorer with seven points in this one. Despite foul trouble,
Brennan Gagen still racked up five assists at starting point guard.
The Majors will next be in action this weekend, January 6th at Conway, Ark. again Hendrix College.
Follow the Major Men's Basketball team and the rest of Millsaps athletics on Facebook at Millsaps Major Athletics, Twitter @MajorAtheltics, and Instagram @GoMajors. Show you support for your favorite team by using the hashtags GoMajors and MajorPlay.
