CHICAGO – The Roosevelt men's basketball team staged a furious late rally on Saturday, coming back from a 19-point deficit with 7:34 left in regulation to draw even with visiting Trinity International in the game's closing moments, but TIU's Jeremy Carlyle scored the game-winning bucket on a putback of his own miss with 0.1 left on the clock as the Lakers suffered a tough 94-92 loss to the Trojans inside the Goodman Center.
Grant Gibson heaved a three-quarters court shot that went in amidst the final horn sounding, but the officials immediately waved off the bucket as they determined there was not enough time to get off a shot, concluding an emotional rollercoaster of a game.
Jake Ludwig scored 22 of his game-high 27 points to ignite the rally for Roosevelt (11-9, 5-5 CCAC), who had two other 20-point performers in Gibson (21 points) and Bennett Fuzak (20 points before leaving due to injury).
Carlyle made six three-pointers en route to 24 points for the Trojans (11-9, 5-5 CCAC), who featured five scorers in double figures.
Fuzak and Gibson scored 15 and 14 points, respectively, in the first half to help the hosts go up by as many as 10 and eventually send the Lakers into the break with an eight-point lead.
TIU opened the second half on a 13-3 run to take the lead, and eventually the Trojans would stun the Lakers with a 10-0 burst that quickly inflated a nine-point lead for the guests into a 19-point advantage. Trinity International was buoyed by 71 percent shooting in the second half, making 24 of 34 shots during the game's final 20 minutes.
Facing a seemingly-insurmountable challenge, the Lakers went to work and chipped away at the deficit by way of the foul line and via the fingertips of Ludwig before utilizing the three-ball to close the gap even further. A pair of Ludwig treys sandwiched triples by Gibson and Chandler Fuzak to whittle an 11-point deficit down to a single point with 2:31 on the game clock.
Trailing by three, Roosevelt eventually tied the game as Ludwig was fouled attempting a three and calmly sank all three shots at the charity stripe to make it a 90-90 ballgame.
A dunk by Jamal Bailey returned the lead to Trinity, but Matt Myers knotted things up with 37 ticks left on a bucket assisted by Ludwig.
After Carlyle missed a three on the other end, Ludwig rebounded the ball and the Lakers called timeout to get a chance at a late go-ahead look.
Asquini fired a three that missed the mark with 17 seconds left, and Carlyle corralled the rebound and dribbled to the other end, allowing precious seconds to tick off the clock. The TIU guard then went up for a layup that missed, but he was able to quickly grab the miss unimpeded and put the ball into the hoop for the game's most decisive pair of second-chance points.
With 0.1 on the clock and players frantically moving around the backcourt, the ball was inbounded to Gibson. The senior guard fired off a prayer shot that shockingly went through the hoop with the LED lights on the backboard tinged in bright red. But as some Lakers and the fans began to celebrate, the officials quickly waved off the shot in tandem knowing that, by virtue of the Trent Tucker Rule that disallows shots taken with less than 0.3 seconds left in a game, not enough time remained for such a shot to count.
"The comeback was entertaining, but in our locker room it is quite frustrating because we couldn't guard these guys today or Wednesday in South Bend," Roosevelt head coach Joe Griffin said, referring to the Lakers' last two losses. "We must defend at a high clip for us to win, but letting TIU score 57 points in the second half and shoot 55 percent is too much for our team to overcome, even though we almost miraculously pulled it out.
"Jake and Grant really paced our scoring as they've done all year, and Bennett's 20 points helped, but our team defense and urgency was disappointing," Griffin stated. "We hold teams to 73 points coming into this game, and to give up 94 on your home court is frankly embarrassing."
Roosevelt heads to Arlington Heights this Wednesday, Jan. 16 to battle rival Robert Morris Illinois at 7 p.m.
