Ravens Fall to Pioneers in Heart Stopper

The Anderson University men's basketball battled in Lexington, Ky. on Sunday as they took on the Transylvania University Pioneers in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference quarterfinals. Anderson (16-9, 11-7), who entered as the No. 5 seed, battled hard against Transylvania (16-8, 10-6), the No. 4 seed, surging a late comeback against the Pioneers. Unfortunately for the Ravens, they were unable to come away with the victory as they fell to the Pioneers 66-65, ending their season.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• From the opening tip it was a back-and-forth battle between the Ravens and Pioneers. Transylvania got on the board first with 19 minutes, 44 seconds on the clock as Hunter Penn put up a hook shot to get them on the board. Tate Ivanyo immediately answered for the Ravens, draining a three. The Ravens one-point lead didn't last long though as Transylvania went back down the court for a layup, making it a 4-3 game.
• Both sides shared a few more points before Transylvania took a 12-7 lead with 13:43 left in the half.
• Between 13:42 and 11:06, neither team could get on the board. The scoreless streak finally broke when Maurice Knight drained a three for the Ravens, making it a 12-10 game in favor of the Pioneers at 11:05.
• Anderson slowly crept in on Transylvania lead through the remainder of the half. With 4:37 remaining, Tate Ivanyo tied the game up 19 apiece off a dunk. Transylvania would then take back the lead but it wouldn't last long before Anderson finally got its first lead since the opening minutes of the contest. With 2:07 left in the half, Maurice Knight hit a 3-pointer to give the Ravens a 24-22 lead.
• The Pioneers didn't let Anderson hold onto their lead for long though, as they tied the game 24-24 off a jumper. Transylvania would go on to add five more points, all off of free throws, to close out the half with a 29-24 lead over the Ravens.
• Although the Pioneers began the second half with the first basket, the Ravens spent the beginning minutes cutting Transylvania's lead. After producing numbers offensively and closing in on the lead, Anderson tied it up 33-33 off a Tate Ivanyo 3-pointer.
• At 16:17, the Pioneers tacked on two free throws before Tate Ivanyo drained yet another 3-pointer. The Pioneers then went down the court to make a three of their own as they held a 38-36 lead over the Ravens with 15:30 remaining in the game.
• Between 15:29 and 11:54, Anderson was unable to make a basket as Transylvania put up six points to make it a 44-36 lead in their favor.
• Jordan Gadis broke the Ravens scoreless streak with a 3-pointer at 11:53. After two Pioneer free throws that were good, both sides went on a scoreless streak.
• Action began to pick up again slowly starting a 9:40 when Alex Hunt put in two free throws for the Ravens. At this time, the Ravens trailed the Pioneers 46-41.
• Anderson once again began to close in on Transylvania, slowly putting up the numbers before tying the game up. Maurice Knight tied the game 50 apiece off a driving lay-up with 6:55 remaining in the game.
• It then became a back-and forth battle, with three ties spanning in two minutes of action.
• Anderson then took a 59-57 with 4:23 remaining. The Ravens extended their lead to 63-57 with just 1:57 left on the clock.
• With 1:04 on the clock, Fred Shropshire made two free throws for the Ravens to make it 65-59. Then, with under a minute to play Transylvania capitalized on their opportunities. As 57 seconds remained on the clock, the Pioneers put in two free throws to cut the Ravens lead to four. They would then add on a 3-pointer with 44 seconds on the clock to make it a 65-64 game as the Ravens still led. Anderson would have chances but couldn't get it in the basket.
• The final basket of the game then came with 11 seconds left in the contest off a jumper for the Pioneers as they took a one-point, 66-65 lead over the Ravens. Although the Ravens had a few chances to comeback, they fell short in the end as they couldn't make it in the basket, ultimately falling to the Pioneers 66-65.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Anderson finished its final game of the year shooting 22-of-60 (36.7 percent) from the field, 8-of-21 (38.1 percent) from three, and 13-of-20 (65 percent) in free throws. Transylvania respectively went 24-of-54 (44.4 percent), 3-of-14 (21.4 percent), and 15-of-20 (75 percent).
• During the two halves of action, there was a total of 14 lead changes and seven ties between the two teams.
• Maurice Knight and Tate Ivanyo led the Ravens, both recording 22 points during the contest. Knight led the way with 11 rebounds and three assists as well as picking up one block. Ivanyo recorded his career high in points during the game while adding on six rebounds, three steals, one assist, and one block.
• Camden Smith came off the bench to add on 10 points, three rebounds, one assist, and one steal.
• Francis Uzorh finished with six rebounds, one assist, and led the team with two blocks.

HEAD COACH OWEN HANDY'S COMMENTS

• I am really proud of the resiliency we played with [on Sunday]. We executed our scout in the first half at both ends, and got the shots we wanted but they didn't fall. We had the toughness to keep defending and rebounding, came out of the halftime break and those same shots started dropping.
• Unfortunately, we made one too many mistakes under a minute, and Transylvania made a couple of really big shots.

I do not have enough superlatives for the six seniors who will move on from our program. I am tremendously grateful for the commitment and dedication that Phil [Bessick], Dalton [DuBois], Tommy [Fordonski], Maurice [Knight], Austin [Lyons] and Frank [Uzorh] have represented.