Dec. 19, 2007

Box Score | More Coverage: Lafayette News Stand

TOWSON, Md. - Bilal Abdullah, Deirunas Visockas and Matt Betley all hit three-pointers in overtime to help Lafayette defeat Towson 79-69 on Wednesday at Towson Center. Abdullah finished with his first double-double of the season, scoring 14 points and grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds while Betley was just shy of his third double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds.

For the third time this season, Lafayette (7-3) required an extra session to decide the victor and Lafayette remained perfect in overtime. Visockas (14) joined two other Leopards, Michael Gruner (13) and Ted Detmer (11) in double figures at Towson (4-6).

Towson closed the first half with a 6-1 run and led 28-22 at halftime as the Leopards shot just 33.3 percent from the floor. The Tigers' Rodney Spruill scored 10 points in the first half and finished the night with a team-high 17 points.

In the second half, Lafayette went nearly four minutes without a bucket, and the run of 10 straight for Towson ended when Betley converted a putback to cut the lead to 51-46 at 8:46.

Betley's three-point play off a drive and dish by Abdullah trimmed Towson's lead to two (61-59) with just over two minutes remaining in the game. Detmer stole the ball on the ensuing possession and went to the hoop where he was fouled and went to the line for two. He hit the first one, but the second rimmed out and Towson led 61-60.

Towson got the ball in to its leading scorer, Junior Hairston who had the ball stripped. A Visockas three missed and the Tigers got the ball back. The Leopard defense forced a tough shot by C.C. Williams, but Lafayette could not corral the rebound and loose ball and was forced to foul. Williams made the second of two free throws, to give Towson a 62-60 lead with 26.7 seconds left in the game.

Betley drove to the hoop on the baseline, but the shot was long. Gruner caught the ball in the air and went right back up with it to tie the game 62-62 with 8.1 seconds left. The Tigers got the ball out of the timeout and dribbled down the court. Spruill had a good look at a three-pointer, but Abdullah came over to help out and swatted the attempt away to preserve the tie and send the game to overtime.

As overtime, opened, a no-look pass from Jeff Kari found Abdullah open for a three-pointer from the corner that gave Lafayette the 65-62 lead, its first advantage since the 12:20 mark of the second half. Visockas added a layup and hit a clutch three-pointer with 1:56 left, catching the Tigers a slide behind on the zone with crisp short passes. Lafayette expanded the lead to led 72-67 with a three from Betley and . Detmer and Abdullah each converted on a pair of free opportunities in the final minute to seal the 79-69 final. Lafayette did not commit a turnover in the final 14 minutes.

Lafayette returns to action on Friday, traveling to Mount St. Mary's for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.

GAME NOTES: • The Leopards were without junior guard Andrew Brown (16.4 ppg) and senior guard Paul Cummins (9.0 ppg) who were sitting out games to allow injuries to heal. The two are averaging a combined 25.4 points per game in 2007-08.
• Lafayette used its fifth starting lineup of the season as Jeff Kari got the start at guard, replacing Andrew Brown. Kari joined Bilal Abdullah, Michael Gruner, Matt Betley and Everest Schmidt.
• The Leopards emerged from a 10-day break from game action after taking final exams.
The last time five Leopards scored in double figures was at Rutgers on Dec. 4 (Brown 17, Schmidt 14, Betley 13, Abdullah 13, Cummins 12).
• Lafayette matched its season best 22 assists from Columbia (12/8/2007) led by a career-high six from Ted Detmer.
• Bilal Abdullah played a career-high 41 minutes, the most of any of the 20 players on the floor.