Jan. 24, 2008

Final Stats

The Racers visited Notre Dame College Falcons for the first time ever on Wednesday evening. The Racers were hoping for the same outcome as the last meeting when the Falcons were at UNOH. The Racers fought back after a very slow start to extend the game into overtime, only to come up short against the Falcons with a final of 70-64.

The game started off a little sluggish for the Racers as after 7 minutes of basketball, they found themselves down 14-4. After a 5-0 spurt by Josh Vorst, the Racers found themselves down 14-9 with 12:13 left. Neither team would score for the next three minutes until the Racers closed within 14-12 after a free throw by Donovan DeLong and another layup by Josh Vorst. Vorst would score 11 points in the first 14 minutes of the game to make the score 19-16.

The Falcons would use a 10-0 run to put a little distance between them and the Racers with 2:26 remaining in the first half to lead 29-16. A very low scoring first half for the Racers closed with the Falcons leading 32-18.

Leading the way for the Racers in the first half was Josh Vorst with 11 points and 4 rebounds. The Racers shot 28% from the floor and a miserable 1-10 from behind the arc for 10%. For the Falcons, Karim McFarlane was well on his way for a double-double as he totaled 14 points and 7 rebounds in 20 minutes of action. One of the nation's top leading scorer's, Jerome Pierce of the Falcons, was held to 0 points in the first half.

Jason Sarno got the second half underway with 5 consecutive points to get into the scoring column. After 5 minutes in the second half, the Racers could only inch 1 point closer as the score was 41-28. At the 12:28 mark remaining in the game, Josh Vorst had 17 of the Racers 32 points as the Racers inched a little closer 43-32. The Racers would use a 7-0 run the next 2 minutes to bring the game to 45-39.

The Racers would continue that run as Vorst connected on his third three pointer of the game and his 20th point of the game, and Kyle Gillette added a put back to bring the game to 46-44, the closest the Racers had been since the first half. The Racers squared even twice with two backside layups by Aaron Braun with 5:28 left to go in the contest.

The Racers took their first lead of the contest at 50-48 with Josh Vorst's layup with 5:10 left in the game. Isaac Bowers connected for a three pointer to make the lead 53-50, until Jerome Pierce connected on his first three pointer of the game to tie it at 53-53. After exchanging baskets and Pierce connecting on a spectacular three pointer, the game remained tied at 58-58 with 1:35 left in the game.

Josh Vorst answered with an acrobatic jumper with :01 second left on the shot clock to recapture the lead at 60-58 with 1:05 left in the contest. Only to have Pierce answer with an acrobatic move of his own to tie it at 60-60 with :52 seconds left. With a great defensive stand with no shot clock on the Falcons, UNOH's Josh Vorst heaved a half courter as time expired and came up just short.

With 5:00 minutes set for overtime, the Falcons gathered the tip gathered two offensive rebounds to take the lead in OT. After several possessions, the Racers got their first offensive score by Kyle Gillette at the 2:38 mark to tie the game 62-62. With consecutive breakaway layups off turnovers, the Racers found themselves down 66-62 with 1:06 on the clock. The Racers cut the lead to 66-64, but couldn't find the baskets on the offensive end and Notre Dame connected on the free throw line on all four attempts to make the final 70-64.

Leading the way for the Racers was Josh Vorst who totaled 25 points. Three other Racers reached double figures, including Isaac Bowers with 10 points, Jason Sarno with 10 points, and Kyle Gillette recording another double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds. The Racers shot over 60% in the second half from everywhere helping them push the game into overtime.

For the Falcons, Karim McFarlane ended with a double-double with 24 points and 11 rebounds, including 7 offensive boards. Kyle Miller hit all 7 of his free throw attempts to total him 15 points, and Jerome Pierce was held in check with only 10 points and 7 assists. Columbus Grove native Eric Maag totaled 9 points off of 3 three pointers.

The loss moves the Racers to 7-15 on the season while the Falcons of Notre Dame move to 9-11. The Racers will be back in action on Monday, January 28th when they host Mountain State University. Mountain State comes to UNOH as a NAIA Division I member who is currently 18-0 and ranked #1 in the nation in Division I.