DOVER, Del. – Wesley College's AJ Tilghman sunk a free throw with 1.2 seconds remaining to give the 16th-ranked Wolverines men's basketball team a 68-67 Capital Athletic Conference win over No. 17 Mary Washington on Saturday afternoon at Wentworth Gymnasium. The Wolverines improve to 11-1 on the year and 4-1 in the CAC while the Eagles fall to 11-2 overall and 5-1 in league play.
With the game tied at 67 and with Mary Washington in possession, Tilghman stole the ball from Bradley Riester (21 points) and drove hard to the basket before being fouled by Dajon Daniel (17 points). A sophomore from Wilmington, Del., Tilghman made the first of two free throws and missed the second and the Eagles desperation heave came up well short.
Brandin Youngblood led Wesley with 15 points with six made field goals, half coming from long range. Quincy Pettiford finished with 13 while Anthony Bowers added ten. Tilghman chipped in with six points, four rebounds and four assists as Wayne Lennon grabbed a game-high 11 boards with a pair of threes.
Shooting on the day was just as close as the final score as Mary Washington narrowly outshot Wesley, 41.2% to 41.0%.
The Wolverines were down for most of the game, trailing by as many as nine points with 2:45 left in the first half when Riester sunk a triple to make the score 35-26 in favor of Mary Washington. Bowers, Tilghman's classmate and fellow Wilmington native, responded with a three of his own as the Eagles went into the half with a 35-29 advantage.
Following a layup by David Langan (8 points, 7 rebounds) to start the second half, Eric Selby, who finished with ten points and five assists before fouling out, scored five-straight points to give Wesley its first lead at 36-25 with 18:44 in regulation.
Mary Washington once again stopped the bleeding with a three, one of 12 made shots from downtown on the day for the visitors. A jumper by Riester extended UMW's lead back to four points before another three by Selby cut the deficit back to a single point with just over 17 minutes to play.
The deficit would waiver from one to four points in favor of Mary Washington for the next several minutes before Wayne Lennon connected from beyond-the-arc, giving Wesley its largest lead with 9:08 remaining at 58-56.
Six-straight points by the Eagles gave Mary Washington a four point lead with 4:09 remaining but following a layup by Bowers and a pair of free throws by Tilghman, the game was tied once again at 65 with just 1:44 left.
Bowers then hit a jumper with 43 seconds remaining to give Wesley back the two point lead by Taylor Johnson (22 points) responded with a bucket to tie the score at 67 with 24 ticks in regulation.
Mary Washington called two consecutive timeouts and as Wesley struggled to pass the ball in on the inbounds pass, head coach Jerry Kobasa called a timeout of his own.
Dom Morra then tied up Bowers for the ball with 12 seconds remaining as the possession arrow favored the Eagles for their final possession of the game.
Salisbury visits Wentworth Gymnasium for a CAC tipoff on Wednesday, January 15, at 8 pm.