February 4, 2015

EASTON, Pa. – The Lafayette men’s basketball team, trailing by 15 at the break and 17 with 16:29 left in the second half, mounted a furious comeback to knock off league-leading Bucknell on Wednesday in overtime at Kirby Sports Center, 84-74.

Senior Seth Hinrichs’ turnaround jumper gave the Leopards (14-8, 6-5 PL) the lead with 1:50 remaining, but two free throws from Bucknell’s Steven Kaspar tied it up at 1:25. After one-of-two from the foul line from Kaspar on the next possession, Hinrichs followed up a Nick Lindner miss to give the Maroon and White a 65-64 edge with 29 seconds remaining.

Kaspar converted on the offensive end with 20 seconds on the clock, but Lindner drove hard and finished with a scoop lay-up around the outstretched arm of Nana Foulland to tie it up at 67. With 15 seconds left, the Lafayette defense came through, forcing a tough shot from Chris Hass that sailed off the mark and was corralled by Hinrichs to send it to overtime.

Despite Cory Starkey’s bucket to open the extra session, the five-minute period was controlled by Lafayette from that point forward as an 8-2 burst put the Leopards in the driver’s seat with 1:50 to play. Lindner went 6-of-6 from the foul line in the final two minutes, while junior Bryce Scott and senior Dan Trist each converted on their opportunities, and the Leopards went on to complete the comeback.

“Obviously, it was a tale of two halves,” head coach Fran O’Hanlon said. “We did a much better job with shot selection after the break and, when we made our shots, we had a chance to set up our defense. It was a great comeback win for us.”

Trist, coming off his second Patriot League Player of the Week award of the season, put on a show, recording his fourth double-double of the year with game-highs of 29 points and 11 rebounds. Lindner dropped in a career-high 26 points to go along with five assists and two steals, hitting on 10-of-12 free-throw attempts.

Hinrichs and Scott, despite scoring just six and eight points, respectively, got the job done on the glass, ripping down 10 and six boards apiece. The Leopards turned around a 1-for-6 effort in the first half from beyond the arc by going 5-for-8 in the second stanza and 6-for-14 on the night (42.9%). Overall, Lafayette shot 29-for-53 from the floor (54.7%) and 20-of-25 from the foul line (80.0%), including 11-of-12 from the charity stripe in overtime (91.7%).

Bucknell’s JC Show led the way for the Bison (12-12, 7-4) with 17 points, hitting on 5-of-7 from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes. Hass, Foulland and Starkey joined Show in double figures with 13, 12 and 12, points respectively, while Starkey also ripped down nine boards to pace the Bison on the glass. Lafayette won the rebounding battle, 37-29, redeeming themselves after losing that area, 44-35, in the first meeting this season.

The two teams traded buckets through the opening minutes as eight early points from Trist moved Lafayette to a 13-12 lead at the 12-minute media timeout. A Foulland finish through a foul, though, at the 9:55 mark switched the lead in the visitors’ favor at 15-13.

A turnaround jumper from sophomore Michael Hoffman at the seven-minute mark ended a scoring drought of over six minutes for the Leopards, who trailed 17-15 midway through the half. Another stretch of inefficiency on the offensive end, coupled with three straight triples from Show moved the Bison lead to 11 at 28-17 with less than five minutes to play.

Yet another pair of threes from Show, his fourth and fifth of the opening half, made it 38-21 with less than a minute to play and Lafayette went into the halftime intermission, trailing 38-23.

Bucknell came out with more of the same to open the second half as inefficiency on the offensive end from the Leopards allowed the Bison to pull ahead 46-29 after the first four minutes.

A triple and a free throw from sophomore Monty Boykins gave Lafayette life with 14:20 to play and a follow from Trist at the 12:53 mark cut the Bucknell lead to 11, 49-38. The Leopards continued to surge as a 10-1 run over the next four minutes brought them within five, 53-48 and jumper from Trist made it a one-possession game at 55-52 with less than seven minutes left.

Two free throws from freshman Matt Klinewski cut the Bison edge to one at 55-54 at the six-minute mark and a strong drive from Lindner brought the Leopards all the way back with their first lead of the game, 56-55, a lead they would surrender and regain before the final buzzer sounded.

Next up for Lafayette is a matchup with Boston U. at Kirby Sports Center on Monday at 7 p.m. That game be seen live nationally on CBS Sports Network.