DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle men's basketball team survived a desperation three attempt from visiting Tampa at the buzzer to hold on for a 59-58 win over the Spartans at the ICI Center. The win snapped a three-game skid for the Eagles and improved the Blue and Gold's record to 12-8 in 2015-16. The Spartans got all 58 points from just four players, falling to 6-14 on the year.
Ognjen Miljkovic had 28 points on 13-for-19 shooting for the Eagles, grabbing eight of the team's 51 rebounds in 35 minutes of action. Miljkovic was joined in double-figures by
Dalton Barnes who had 11 points to go along with eight boards, three assists and five steals.
The Eagles, who shot under 36 percent for the game, trailed 57-54 with 90 seconds to go, but got a huge triple from senior
Daniel Kiesling to tie the game before getting a defensive stop. Barnes missed an elbow jumper with 40 seconds left, but Miljkovic grabbed the rebound and put in a layup to give the hosts a two-point lead.
"We played our guts out on defense tonight," Head Coach
Steve Ridder said. "It came down to a loose ball on our offensive end of the floor and OG got to it, powered through traffic and stuck it in to give us the win. And Kiesling's shot was absolutely monumental to tie it up for us."
Tampa, who faired not much better than ERAU from the field, held to just 38 percent, burned nearly all the time off the shot clock on the ensuing possession, but Austin Rettig drove in and was fouled with six seconds left, making 1-of-2 from the free throw line to trim the ERAU lead to 59-58.
The Spartans fouled Barnes, but the junior missed the front-end of the one-and-one, setting up a final possession for UT to try to win the game. ERAU, who had just two fouls at that point, fouled on consecutive in-bounds passes, and with under two seconds left, Tampa got the ball to Pat Bacon, but his fade-away corner trey at the buzzer was off the mark as Kiesling grabbed the rebound to seal the win.
ERAU's 59 points were its lowest of the year, and the home team had to battle back from a 10-point deficit early on in the game after a Rettig three at the 16:31 mark gave UT a 14-4 advantage.
Barnes made a three after a
Skyler Hogan steal, sparking a 14-4 run for the home team, culminating in a
Joseph Gonzalez jumper that tied things up at 18-18 with under nine minute left in the half.
ERAU got a three from Hogan at the 6:53 mark to give ERAU a 23-18 lead, and Embry-Riddle held that advantage as it entered the lockeroom up, 30-25.
Miljkovic had 13 points in the first half to lead the Eagles while Bacon was the lone Spartan in double-figures at 10 points.
The home team's half time cushion went away quickly as Tampa tied the game at 33-33 on a Rettig jumper in the paint with 17:03 left and the two teams battled back-and-forth for the rest of the contest, with the largest lead being ERAU at 48-42 on a Miljkovic layup with 10:48 to go.
UT went just 5-for-32 from long range while Bacon finished with 20 points and seven rebounds. Duke Shelton had a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds for the visitors.
"We had some guys step up and fill some holes for us," Ridder said. "Brad Mapes came off the bench and gave us some big minutes, grabbing rebounds, playing good defense. Skyler, in his first career start tonight, had 10 rebounds and played his guts out."
The Eagles had a huge night on the boards, grabbing 51 as a team, including 10 from Hogan, and eight each from Barnes and Miljkovic. All but one Eagle that played had at least five rebounds on the night.
"Tampa is as athletic as any team in the conference," Ridder said. "Boxing out has to be a priority when you want to outrebound them, and we did that. They only got five offensive rebounds all night, it was impressive how we rebounded the basketball."
ERAU has a week off before travelling to Eckerd on Wednesday, Feb. 10 for a 7:30 p.m. tip against the top-25 ranked Tritons.
