NW Mississippi News

Men Nearly Erase 20-Point Deficit, Comeback Bid Falls Short Vs. Tougaloo

The Rust College men's basketball program trailed by 18 at the half and were down 20 points at the 18:22 mark of the second half but roared all the way back and eventually led the one-loss, undefeated in GCAC play Bulldogs with two minutes remaining but ran out of gas in a 78-72 Senior Night setback.

The Bearcats finished the regular season at 7-7 in conference play with the fifth seed and has been penciled into the last GCAC Quarterfinal contest against #4 Wiley at 7 p.m. on Friday evening inside Kroger Gymnasium on the campus of Tougaloo College.

For his final game in a Rust College uniform, Kris Huntsman contributed four points in 12 minutes as the squad's lone senior student-athlete.

The Cats outsmarted the Dogs by doubling them up in the turnover department (18-9) and it was the chaos producing defense that nearly allowed the home team to make the improbable comeback as RC forced 15 second-half turnovers compared to committing just four over the final 20 minutes.

Davonte Craven hopes to hear his name called at least once at the GCAC Awards ceremony next weekend as the GCAC Player and Newcomer of the Year candidate dropped game-highs for points (23), field goals (9), and blocks (3) as well as a Bearcat-best eight rebounds and four assists.

 Catthadious Moore had sticky hands on the evening, collecting a contest-most six steals plus ten points on 5-of-6 (83.3%) shooting.

 Damonte Streate also had a productive scoring night, posting 16 points courtesy of a team-high three treys and tied with Craven for the dimes lead at four.

 Keshon Tabb was the final notable contributor for Head Coach Michael Poindexter, notching an even ten points in the stat sheet.

Original source can be found here.