Titan men lose match in final seconds

The IU South Bend Titan men's basketball team was not able to avenge the women's team as the Holy Cross Saints defeated the Titans 71-69 in the second game of a double header on January 21 at the Student Activities Center.

Holy Cross fans were in high attendance at the SAC, outnumbering the Titan fans and eliminating the very idea of a home court advantage. If anything, there was more noise in favor of the Saints, which may have affected the spirits of the Titan players late in the game.

The Saints started the first half firing on all cylinders as they quickly came out and built a 16-9 lead in the initial minutes, led by the 3-point shooting of Yama Kader. However, the Titans started clicking and fired back, charging for a 27-22 lead before Holy Cross called a timeout to slow the game down. The Titans were able to go into halftime with the lead 38-30 in their favor.

The second half was more of the same, with the Titans charging as they ran up the score. They were leading by as much as 15 points up with a little over 10 minutes left in the game, and seemed to control their own destiny. However, the Saints team, while aided by the hysteria of their fans, started to mount a comeback and slowly chipped away at the Titan's lead. What had seemed like a sure thing for the home team became more and more of a question as both their lead and the play clock ran down.

With the Titans leading by only one point with less than 30 seconds left, the Saints had one goal; to score. By either strategy or opportunity, the Saints' Yama Kader sank a 3-point shot with only 5.8 seconds left on the clock, meaning the Titans would have to score two points just to tie the game. They failed to do so, and the Holy Cross fans went wild as the Titan crowd stared in disbelief.

Despite the disappointing outcome, a few Titan players had great individual games. Henry Smith scored 20 points, Kyle Heatherly had 15 of his own and Chris Beam tallied 11. Alanzo Bass had a very complete game on both sides of the ball with nine points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals.

The Titan men will return to home on Saturday, January 28 at 2 p.m. to take on Saint Xavier University.