The Raven Men's Basketball closed out the regular season on Saturday with a four-point win over Central Methodist University.
After dropping a double-overtime game to the Eagles back on Jan. 13, the Ravens earned the season split with a 78-74 win over the Eagles.
The only tie of the game came with 34 seconds left to play. CMU's Isaiah Burton connected on a 3-pointer to tie the game at 74-74. Jaiden Bristol followed that with a runner in the paint, drawing a foul and had a chance to put the Ravens up by three with nine seconds remaining. CMU missed four free throws inside the final five seconds of the game and Bristol was able to knock down a pair of free throws with 0.8 remaining to seal the win for Benedictine.
Benedictine opened the game outscoring CMU 16-6 over the first seven minutes of the game. They stretched their lead to as much as 16 points twice, first on a 3-pointer from Chris Jackson near the midpoint of the half and again on a fastbreak runner from Matt Austin with six minutes left. The Eagles were able to cut the Ravens lead down to six points inside the final seconds of the first half, but a last-second 3-pointer from Bristol gave the Ravens a 39-30 lead at the break.
The Ravens were able to keep the Eagles at arm's length for much of the second half. Colby Nickles pushed the Ravens lead back to 16 points off a turnover with 9:13 left in the game before the Eagles started to close down their deficit. CMU outscored Benedictine 22-6 over the next eight minutes but could never grab the lead.
Five Ravens finished in double figures, led by Bristol's 19. Nickles scored 16 as he anchored the bench scoring that finished with a 29-16 advantage. Jayden Temme scored 14, followed by Austin with 12 and Eric Krus with 10.
With the win, the Ravens now move to the 2020 Heart Postseason Tournament. Benedictine finished in a three-way tie for third with Peru State College and MNU. Peru State wins that tiebreaker and will earn the three seed, MNU loses their head-to-head tiebreaker with MNU and will travel to MNU on March 5 as the tournament's No. 5 seed.
