Men's Basketball Reaches 20-Win Plateau at Muskingum
For just the second time since the inception of the men’s basketball program at Heidelberg College, the Student Princes have reached the 20-win plateau. Heidelberg traveled to New Concord, Ohio today and posted a 108-102 double overtime victory over host Muskingum College in Ohio Athletic Conference action to improve to 20-5 on the year.
The 20-5 regular season mark ties the 1983-84 team for the best regular season record for the Berg. Aside from its overall record on the year, Heidelberg put together one of the program’s best OAC records. In 18 games, Heidelberg finished at 14-4 overall and stood second in the final league standings. The 14 wins ties for the most conference wins in a season, matching the runner-up team of 1989-90. Heidelberg also stood tied for second in the final regular season standings during its 1983-84 campaign with a 10-3 league mark.
The victory over the Muskies (15-9, 9-9 OAC) allows Heidelberg to ride a five-game winning streak into the OAC Tournament where they are the No. 2 seed in the eight-team tournament. Heidelberg will host No. 7 John Carroll University on Wednesday in Seiberling Gymnasium. It is the first time the Berg has hosted an OAC Tournament game since 2002. Riding in favor of the Berg is that in its last six-consecutive times the Berg has played in its home venue in the tournament the team has posted a victory.
Heidelberg led by as many as 13 points, 67-54, following an Andrew Lemmon (Port Clinton, Ohio / Port Clinton) three-pointer with 12:27 left in regulation. Muskingum went on to outscore the Berg 13-2 to pull within two points, 69-67, with 9:35 left in the second half. The two teams battled to three ties and six lead changes over the final 10 minutes. Muskingum held an 87-85 lead with 1:19 on the clock. Heidelberg’s Josh Calver (Shelby, Ohio / Shelby) hit a lay up with 13 seconds on the clock to force overtime.
The Berg and Muskies played even, 8-8, through the first overtime period. Calver hit a jumper with 43 seconds on the clock to put the Berg up by two, 95-93, but a Heidelberg foul and two free throws by Muskingum’s Trevor Scott sent the game into double overtime.
Heidelberg scored first in the second overtime and jumped out to a 103-98 lead with 41 seconds left. Muskingum pulled within two points, 104-102, with 25 second left, but was forced to foul to stop the clock. Over the final 21 seconds, Heidelberg hit 4-of-6 from the charity stripe to post the win.
Leading the way for the Berg was Lemmon with his third-straight double-double, and 12th on the year, finishing with a career-high 33 points and 13 rebounds. Backing Lemmon was Shawn Shriver (Bellevue, Ohio / Western Reserve) with 22 points. Rounding out four in double figures was Brian Schmidt (Hinckley, Ohio / Brunswick) with 15 and Greg Tyson Jr. (Lima, Ohio / Lima Senior) with 13. Dishing out a career-high nine assists was Calver, to go along with seven points and five rebounds. Schmidt hauled in nine rebounds in the winning effort.
Muskingum was led by Brandon Todd with a game-high 35 points, while Tyler Felt added 29 points and five rebounds.