Men's Basketball snapped a three-game losing streak on Saturday, holding off a late push by Culver-Stockton College.
Ahmad Louis connected on a pair of free throws with 17 seconds remaining in the game before a foul was called inside the final second of the game giving the Wildcats a chance to tie the game and potentially force overtime. Culver-Stockton's Seth Larson missed the first of two free throws and then made the second, which allowed Benedictine to inbound the ball and earn the 65-64 win.
Saturday's game was the second straight for the Ravens to come down to the final seconds after they fell to Graceland in the final seconds on Wednesday.
The first half played through two ties and six lead changes and saw Benedictine lead by as much as 5 points before settling for a 33-31 lead at the break.
Preston Reynolds hit a pair of free throws with 7 minutes left before the half to pull the game even at 20 points. A 3-pointer from Louis gave the Ravens back the lead and after trading baskets with the Wildcats, Braden Belt made back-to-back baskets to push Benedictine to its largest lead of the half at 30-25 with 2 minutes left before half.
The second half was a little more stable as far as the lead was concerned. Both teams pushed out to leads of 6 points with just two ties and two lead changes over the final 20 minutes of the game. Culver-Stockton's 6-point lead came with 8:35 left in the game but a 3-pointer from Sam Ungashick just over 2 minutes later pulled the game to its first tie of the second half at 53 points.
Reynolds converted an old-fashion 3-point play to give Benedictine its 6-point second-half lead with 4:32 left to play and the Ravens maintained their lead until a 3-pointer from Larsen pushed the game even for the second time in the half at 63 points. Three free throws over the final 1:17 of the game proved to be enough as Benedictine earned the win.
Belt led three Ravens in double figures with a game-high 17 points. Louis and Ungashick finished with 11 points each while Reynolds added 9 points and 9 rebounds.
Benedictine forced Culver-Stockton into 11 turnovers, which allowed them to finish the game with a 13-12 advantage in points off turnovers.
The Ravens will close out the 2022 portion of their schedule with a pair of conference road games. They travel to Parkville, Mo., on Wednesday to take on Park University at 7:30 p.m. and then head North to Dubuque, Iowa, on Dec. 17 to take on Clarke University.
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