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PIKE CREEK, Del. - Stephen Dennis' jumper at the key with 1.8 seconds left proved to be the gamewinner as the Goldey-Beacom College men's basketball team came up just short, 76-74 in their upset bid of No. 6 Kutztown University in non-league play Tues. night at the Joseph West Jones Center.
Junior forward Terrence Parkes and senior guard Kyle White led the way for the Lightning with 25 and 24 points, respectively. Parkes also grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds and pitched in three steals. Sam McDuffie was the third Lightning scorer in double-figures with 16 points to go with six rebounds.
But GBC (8-3) could not extend its six-game win streak as the Lightning did not have an answer for KU's Dennis, who finished with a team-high 22 points, or Tamir Johnson, who was a perfect 8-for-8 from the field and scored 17 points to go with 10 rebounds. The Golden Bears' Julius Gray (14 points) and Ryan Washington (13 points, 12 rebounds) were also in double-figures as Kutztown, ranked No. 6 in a national poll released earlier today, stayed unbeaten at 10-0.
Kutztown improved to 4-0 against the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference and is now one of just eight remaining undefeated Division II schools in the country. All three GBC losses have come against Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference schools as they fell to 3-3 against the PSAC. The Lightning's three losses have come by a combined eight points.
The Lightning tied the score twice in the final 90 seconds, the second tie coming on a White layup with 17 seconds left to play. But that set the stage for late-game heroics by Stephens.
“I saw that there was 12 seconds left, and I wanted to take my man to the basket,” Dennis, a Division II National Player of the Year candidate, said. “So I called for my screen, but [GBC] jumped the screen, and then they jumped my dribble, so I had to spin back and shoot a fade-away jumper. I was just glad that I was able to lead when my team needed me most.”
And the Golden Bears certainly did need him on this night as GBC held Kutztown to well below its season average of 87.2 points per game and put a scare into a team that's been dominant all season, winning games by an average margin of 18.9 points.
The upset-minded Lightning started the game off on a tear, opening up a 17-6 lead in the first five and a half minutes of play on the strength of seven points apiece by White and Parkes. They controlled the lead for most of the first half, but a 12-4 Golden Bear run cut the lead to one, 32-31 with a little under three minutes left in the half. McDuffie's three-point field goal at 2:19 started a 9-2 Lightning surge to close out the first half as GBC took a 41-33 lead into intermission.
Kutztown's 10th year head coach Bernie Driscoll had the Bears switch to zone defense to start the second half, and it proved very effective. The Lightning shot just 36.4 percent from the field after making 51.5 percent of their shots in the first half and were out-rebounded 23-16 in the second frame after holding a 20-14 first half advantage. The Bears pounced early in the second half with a 19-4 run and grabbed a 52-45 lead almost seven minutes into the final frame.
The Lightning did not go away though, keeping within striking distance down 57-50 before going on an 8-0 run to take back the lead on two Parkes foul shots just before the nine minute mark. From that point on there were five lead changes and three ties, as neither team looked ready to concede on this night.
With the score knotted in the fourth of five ties on the night at 72 apiece, KU's Johnson was at the line shooting a one-and-one. He missed the shot and GBC senior forward Troy Esquilin (seven rebounds) corralled the rebound and head coach Chuck Hammond called a timeout.
The Lightning worked the ball around and it resulted in an awkward jumper from the top of the key by Parkes that rimmed out. White came down with the offensive rebound but travelled in the process, giving the Bears possession with just under a minute left to play.
Dennis took the ball down the floor and converted a layup with 27 seconds on the clock to put KU up two, 74-72, but White answered for the Lightning on the ensuing possession with a tough, driving layup at the other end of the floor to send the game to its fifth and final tie (74-74) with 17 seconds left to play.
But back down the floor came Dennis to hit his game-winning jumper with 1.8 ticks left to send the Lightning to their first loss since Dec. 5. Hammond called three consecutive timeouts before the Lightning tried to inbound the ball, but sophomore forward Phil Brooks' inbound pass to White was batted out of bounds as the time on the clock expired.
GBC will try to bounce back on Thurs. night when they attempt to stay undefeated in CACC play against USP at 8 p.m.
