TIFFIN, Ohio - Freshman Iman Johnson and senior Travis Spahr had over 10 rebounds each as the Tiffin University men's basketball team (6-10, 1-8 GLIAC) dropped a heartbreaker, 61-59 to Ashland (8-6, 3-4 GLIAC), Thursday evening at the Gillmor Center.
Ashland controlled the tempo for most of the first 15 minutes of the game. Evan Yates hit a pair of free throws with 5:34 to go. That made it 22-12, Eagles.
Tiffin then put its defensive game face on. Blocking shots, forcing turnovers and grabbing defensive boards helped the Dragons to a 13-2 run. Senior Karl Finley hit a triple from the top of the arc to make it 25-24, TU with 54 seconds left. Yates hit a layup with 41 seconds to go to make it 26-25 AU at the half.
In the second half, neither team was able to put the other one away. With 7:07 left, Finley hit another three-pointer to make it 50-45, Tiffin. Ashland took the lead for good with 2:42 to go.
The Dragons had a shot to tie the game with 1.3 second left. Senior Keenan Barlow grabbed a missed free throw and put up a shot. The ball hit the rim and bounced away as the buzzer sounded.
For Tiffin, Finley had 21 points and six assists while Spahr had 19 points and 10 rebounds and blocked three shots. Johnson had a solid game with 10 rebounds, two steals and five blocked shots.
For Ashland, Jordan Berlin had 17 points, Yates scored 16 points with 13 rebounds while DaWuan Thomas scored 10 points.
Tiffin is back in action, Saturday, January 14, when they travel to play Lake Erie. The game is scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m. Live Stats will be available at http://livestats.prestosports.com/lakeerie/.
-TIFFIN UNIVERSITY-
