URBANA, Ohio – The Urbana men's basketball team dropped its final regular season game Saturday against in-state MEC rival Notre Dame College, 109-91.
UU (2-25, 1-21) will hit the road for its first-round MEC Tournament game Tuesday as the 12th seed. The Blue Knights will play at fifth-seeded Charleston.
Shooting guard
Carlas Jackson led the Blue Knights in scoring with 26 points and career-high eight rebounds.
Dimitri Abner added 16 points, while
Jahmere Howze (14),
Justin Johnson (11), and
Colin Curran (11) also contributed double digits.
NDC had four players go over 20 points, led by Tyree Gaiter's triple-double performance of 32 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists.
UU jumped out to a quick 4-3 lead on a pair of buckets from Abner and Johnson, but NDC rallied with a 16-2 run. The Falcons made eight of their first 10 shots, including a perfect 5-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc to gain control.
The Blue Knights battled and gained momentum on Abner's fastbreak dunk midway through the first half, which cut NDC's lead to single digits at 26-17.
And then a game of runs followed until halftime.
NDC gained a 20-point lead, but UU used a brief 9-0 spurt to make it 39-28 at the under-five media timeout.
UU continued to hang around and Curran connected on a three at the halftime buzzer to make it 48-37 Falcons at the break.
Unfortunately, the second half was all Notre Dame as the lead swelled to as much as 23 points for the visitors.
The contest was the final regular season home game and final appearance at the Grimes Center for seniors Abner and
Mike Newton.
