When Elon senior guard Drew Spradlin missed the first of three potentially game-tying free throws, the game was over.
A hard-fought, foul-heavy Saturday afternoon basketball game ended with a jubilant Western Carolina University squad and a disappointed Elon Phoenix team as the Catamounts defeated Elon 78-76 in overtime Saturday evening in Alumni Gym.
“It’s a tough loss,” Elon sophomore forward Ryley Beaumont said. “Both teams fought like crazy the whole game, back and forth. They made enough plays to win, we didn’t make enough plays to win.”
The loss put the Phoenix at 8-8 in the Southern Conference, two-and-a-half games behind UNC-Greensboro in the SoCon’s North Division. The Spartans will play the Georgia Southern University Eagles at 7:30 p.m. tonight. If UNCG wins, they will have clinched the North Division regular season championship.
"We’re not gonna focus on records," Elon sophomore guard Jack Isenbarger said. "At this point, we’re focusing on getting better each day and correcting the mistakes that we made tonight. We’re going to move onto the next game and move on.
The Phoenix held an 11-point lead with 7:30 remaining in the first half when Elon junior forward Brett Ervin nailed a three-pointer to make the score 28-17. But the Catamounts fought back to tie the game at 52 with 5:56 left in the second half.
“We struggled in the second half offensively,” Elon head coach Matt Matheny said, “and when we had an opportunity to keep a comfortable lead or extend a comfortable lead, we just weren’t efficient with our execution.”
Western Carolina led by three with a minute left in the second half when Spradlin had three points over a 40-second span to tie the game. But he missed an and-one with 16.1 seconds left. Elon rebounded the ball and called a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Spradlin had a jumper miss with seven seconds left. The Catamounts came down the floor and sophomore guard Trey Sumler missed a shot as time ran out to go to overtime.
In the first minute of overtime, Isenbarger and Sumler traded threes. Then the teams went back-and-forth until Sumler made five-of-six free throws in the final minute before Spradlin missed two-of-three.
"The momentum changed more often that we’d like it to," Isenbarger said. "We want to get a lead and establish a lead and be able to maintain that. Give Western credit, they fought the whole time and made their shots."
"It was a major seesaw," Matheny added.
Sumler lead the Catamounts with 22 points and seven assists, playing all 45 minutes in the game. Senior guard Keaton Cole added 19 points and three assists for Western Carolina.
Isenbarger had 22 points and four assists for the Phoenix, extending his double-digit scoring streak to eleven games. Sophomore forwards Ryley Beaumont (eleven points, 12 rebounds) and Lucas Troutman (12 points, ten rebounds) both recorded double-doubles.
The contest marked the first game for Elon freshman guard Austin Hamilton since Jan. 28 at Appalachian State University. He returned from a bout with mononucleosis and played two minutes, missing a three-pointer and grabbing a rebound. Matheny said that he twisted his ankle and does not know what his status is on that injury.
It was a very chippy contest, as Elon ended the game with 26 fouls while Western Carolina was whistled for 21.
“They’re a real tough physical team and we’re a real tough team, and when two tough teams come together there’s going to be some bumps and hits,” Beaumont said.
“There was a lot of fouls called, some of them that weren’t needed to be called, but it was one of those nights where everything is being called,” Troutman added. ”It makes things a little more irritated, kind of slows things down a bit, but those are things you have to deal with.”
The Phoenix really struggled in the ball-handing department, turning the ball over 24 times. It was their highest total since the season-opener against the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Nov. 11 when Elon recorded 25 turnovers.
“We need to make more shots, make more free throws, turn it over less,” Matheny said. “We made some mistakes defensively too. We need to get where we make fewer and fewer mistakes. We’re still making too many mistakes to expect to win.”
Matheny and the Phoenix will play Davidson College Feb. 23 in their final away game of the regular season.
“After today, we know what we have to do, we have to look ahead,” Troutman said. “We need to start preparing, getting ready, preparing for different situations in practice.”