WASHINGTON, Pa.--Senior Justin Stone netted a career-high 23 points and junior Cameron Cook hit five three-pointers but it was not enough as the Hood College men's basketball team (0-1) suffered a heartbreaking 76-74 overtime setback to the Ohio Northern University Polar Bears (1-0) in the opening round of the Washington Area Credit Union Tournament hosted by Washington & Jefferson Saturday evening.
ONU's Branden Rushton was the hero for the Polar Bears and delivered the dagger in the hearts of the Blazer faithful when he got a jumper to fall for what proved to be the game-winning basket with two seconds left in the overtime session.
The two squads battled to six ties in the opening stanza before the Polar Bears had the final say in the half courtesy of Dominique Royal's two free throws in the closing seconds, which gave ONU a 35-33 edge heading into the locker room. Both teams were on fire from the floor as the Polar Bears shot 70 percent from the field (14-of-20) while the Blazers went 14-of-26 (.538) and hit all five long-distance attempts in the first 20 minutes of play.
The second half was a nip-and-tuck affair once again but the Blazers managed to gain some separation from the Polar Bears when Trey Quinn fed Cook for back-to-back triples which gave Hood a seven-point cushion (56-49) with 7:01 remaining. Hood's largest lead was eight after a Reggie Daniels free throw with 6:27 to play in regulation.
However ONU put together a furious rally and shocked the Blazers by regaining the lead with 1:25 left on a trey by Jared Horstman. After a Blazer turnover and a foul, Rushton went to the line for two shots with 46 ticks showing on the clock. He missed the first but made the second to make it a two-point game and Hood called timeout. Stone came up with the clutch shot in the paint with 18 seconds left to tie it and Hood used another timeout. ONU went to Horstman again for the game-winning three but his long-range attempt was off the mark and the teams headed to overtime.
After the Polar Bears and Blazers both connected on their first two attempts in the extra period, Stone snared an offensive board after a Quinn miss and got the putback and a foul with 1:57 remaining. He completed the old-fashioned three-point play to make it 74-72 Hood. On ONU's next trip, Rushton rebounded his own miss and was fouled by Stone, his fifth, and went to the line for two. Rushton hit both free throws to tie the game at 74-74 with 1:23 left, marking the 11th tie of the hard-fought game. After an ONU timeout, the Blazers turned the ball over with 1:07 left but forced a Polar Bear miscue 11 seconds later and called a 30-second timeout.
A three-pointer by Cook with 19 seconds left wouldn't fall and ONU called timeout to setup the potential game-winning shot. Rushton got his shot in the lane to go and, following another Hood timeout, the Blazers were unable to get a shot off as ONU turned the Blazers over on their final possession.
Stone led all scorers on 10-of-14 shooting and grabbed seven boards in 32 minutes of work. He eclipsed his previous scoring high of 22 points set against Gallaudet University his freshman year. Cook registered 18 while Jeremy Veres chipped in nine points off the bench in his Blazer debut. Justin Bowens finished with eight points, five assists and two steals while Quinn dished a team-high six assists and had three steals.
The Blazers will face the loser of the Washington & Jefferson/Penn State-Beaver contest in Sunday's consolation game at 1 p.m.