CHICAGO – Despite a game-high 21 points from senior Grant Gibson, the Roosevelt men's basketball team's season came to a tough end in the 2019 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) Men's Basketball Tournament semifinals on Thursday night, as the fourth-seeded Lakers fell to eighth-seeded St. Francis (Ill.) by a final of 68-63 in front of another electric crowd at Roosevelt's Goodman Center.
The Lakers finished just one victory shy of their second straight 20-win season with a mark of 19-13.
The Fighting Saints (18-14) advance to play Governors State, who defeated Holy Cross (Ind.) in the other semifinal, at University Park on Saturday in the CCAC title game.
With another large crowd on hand for postseason basketball inside the LLGC, the Lakers led for most of the first half and created an advantage as high as seven during the game's first 20 minutes.
Gibson led the first half charge with 10 points, using his trademark grit and determination to score from various points inside the paint and arc.
Roosevelt maintained a lead for the first half of the season stanza before USF tied the game at the period's halfway point. After the Lakers reclaimed the lead, the Saints continued to stay within striking distance and deadlocked the contest before eventually claiming a lead.
From there the contest turned into a nailbiter. Jake Asquini made a pair of free throws to knot the game at 61 with 90 ticks left.
USF made two throws to take a two-point advantage, and after a Gibson miss from downtown, the Saints split a pair at the line with 44 seconds left. Shortly after those foul shot attempts, Gibson made a layup for two of his 11 second-half points to make it a one-point affair.
After a timeout, Cole Micek was fouled and made a pair at the line with 24 seconds remaining, and at the other end Jake Ludwig attempted a three that was rebounded by Asquini but then stolen by Pietro Badalassi. That forced the Lakers to foul Terrion Howard, who sank two foul shots en route to his team-leading 18 points and putting the game out of reach at a five-point margin with 10 seconds left.
"Give St. Francis credit for coming in here and playing their best basketball of the season so far," Roosevelt head coach Joe Griffin said. "As for us, I loved our intensity and our playmaking by assisting on 19 of 24 made shots, but unfortunately it was another cold shooting night for the Lakers from three at 6-for-24. Darn near all of 'em were shots that we would take again in a second."
Griffin gave fair dues to the fans at the Goodman Center, particularly the jam-packed student section.
"As for the crowd tonight, it really makes me proud to see how far the department has come by supporting our team tonight, and our student section was the best that I've ever seen it," Griffin said.
"What a turnout of alumni and fans tonight!"
Thursday marked the final games for seniors Gibson, Asquini, Ludwig, Kyle Bumbalough, Chandler Fuzak and Kevin Day. They comprise of Roosevelt's all-time winningest senior class, bringing the program a variety of records and successes that included the first NAIA Division II Men's Basketball National Championship berth in team history last season.
Ludwig scored eight points and handed out seven assists on Thursday. The All-American guard finished his decorated four-year career as Roosevelt's all-time leading scorer with 1,991 points.
"Our seniors were simply awesome as a class, and they epitomize what a true senior class should be," Griffin declared. "Their intangibles and grit and toughness carried our program to new heights, and they've laid a benchmark for all of our teams to follow."
