Huntingdon men’s basketball falls in OT at AUM

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon men's basketball team rallied in the final minutes of the second half to force overtime at AUM on Monday night.

The Hawks led or were tied for the first 4:57 of overtime before AUM's Quay Davis scored with three seconds to play to hand the Hawks an 80-78 loss.

This was the third straight game decided by four points or less for the Hawks (6-17). Huntingdon defeated Rust College 74-73 on Feb. 9 and lost to Covenant College 56-52 on Saturday.

Both games with AUM (12-12) this season have been decided in the final seconds. AUM hit four free throws in the final 23 seconds to beat the Hawks 65-59 in January.

"We played with a lot of effort and desire tonight," Huntingdon head coach Mike Pugh said. "We've been in a lot of close games this season but we've come up short at the end. Our guys deserve more success than we've seen. We just have to keep working and I believe good things will eventually come."

Huntingdon played from behind most of the first half, trailed by as many as 12 points, and went into halftime down 39-28. But the Hawks outscored AUM 50-41 in the second half and overtime.

Huntingdon pulled within three points twice in the first 11 minutes of the second half, but AUM eased back out to a 13-point lead, 70-57, with 5:38 to play in regulation. Huntingdon answered by outscoring AUM 14-1 in the final 5:13.

An Austin Hill 3-pointer cut AUM's lead to 71-69 with 49 seconds to play and Jeremiah Thomas' layup with 10 seconds left tied the game. AUM missed two shots in the final seconds.

In overtime, Huntingdon struck first with a Thomas basket, but AUM answered and tied the game. A Ryan Petty 3-pointer put the Hawks up 76-73 and a Kanden Blackmon basket made it 78-75 with 1:43 left in overtime.

AUM's Davis tied the game with a 3-pointer with 1:10 left and won the game with a jumper with three seconds to play.

Thomas, Hill and Petty each scored 18 points for the Hawks. Hill had 10 rebounds and Thomas had eight.

Reshad Bickham led AUM with 25 points and eight rebounds. Davis added 17 points and five steals and Dominique Ellis finished with 12 points.

Huntingdon hosts Covenant on Thursday at 3 p.m.