KERRVILLE, Texas –
Teddy Chambers dunked through the go-ahead bucket for McMurry with 34.8 seconds left, and in a wild turn of events late held on for a 68-67 victory over Schreiner Saturday afternoon. Mitch Lawrence missed two point blank layups in the final four seconds for the Mountaineers and McMurry held on for its fourth-straight American Southwest Conference victory.
After Chambers' dunk, Schreiner's Riley Battle missed a jumper and
Steven Jones grabbed a rebound and knifed through the Schreiner defense. In an effort to get the ball to his point guard
Jaden Isler, Jones was called for a controversial back-court violation.
Then, in an effort to get the ball to Battle, Schreiner's Charles Hobbs was then whistled for an illegal screen with 15 seconds remaining that was highly contested by Schreiner's head coach Drew Miller. Then, on the ensuing inbounds play, McMurry's
Derick Sumpter was trapped by two defenders, as he spun out, once again the whistle blew, and this time an offensive foul was called giving the home team the ball in the final 12 seconds.
After Battle's missed shot in the closing seconds, Lawrence came up with the offensive board and missed a wide-open layup. However, he got his own rebound, but this time his layup was contested by
Steven Johunkin and the ball rimmed out as time expired.
Jones finished with 18 points, Sumpter had 17 and Chambers added 10 in McMurry's victory. Battle scored 20 points off the bench for Schreiner and Darren Smith had 19 including a 5 for 6 performance from beyond the 3-point arc. Smith left the game late after he landed awkwardly after nailing his last 3-pointer with under five minutes left. Smith did not return.
McMurry trailed 40-39 at half, but built a 55-44 lead in the second half before the Mountaineers mounted the comeback. The lead changed several times throughout the last 10 minutes of the contest before McMurry left on top.
Schreiner dropped to 8-12 overall and 6-10 in league play. McMurry's 12th win in conference play tied the team with Mary Hardin-Baylor for first place in the ASC West Division.
McMurry returns to action Monday night against Texas Lutheran in Seguin.
