On a night where every bounce seemed to go against them, 3.1 seconds defined the outcome of Rowan's men's basketball's NJAC-opening 66-65 win against the Scarlet Raptors of Rutgers-Camden.
Without senior forward Kevin Darby, who did not dress for unspecified reasons, the Profs bolted out of the gates with a 15-5 run. Led by junior forward Tyson Hartnett, who scored 11 first-half points, the Profs played as though they weren't about to let one missing starter deter them from their third victory of the season.
'It was our first conference game,' said senior guard Aaron Spellman. 'You never want to lose the conference games, especially the ones at home. This was really the first game I played aggressively on offense. I felt like everyone needed to do their part. We knew we had some obstacles in front of us but it was really just a matter of figuring out how to overcome them.'
As if losing Darby for the night wasn't bad enough, senior forward Dan Reddan seemed to pull his shoulder on a short jump sho with just under two minutes remaining in the first half. Almost immediately after, sophomore guard Sean Hughes was helped off the court when it appeared he had turned on his ankle on a fast break. Despite the scares, both players returned to the game, and the Profs went into halftime with a 37-26 lead.
The team came out for the second half applying a much more physical approach. The undersized Profs surrendered their lead for the first time in the game, after Rutgers-Camden senior guard Bill Banks sank a deep three-pointer right in front of the visiting bench at the eight-minute mark. The three gave the Raptors a lead they would relinquish only twice for the remainder of the game.
'This game was going to be tight, we knew that from the start,' said Spellman. 'We're limited on size and coach makes sure we know we aren't going to blow any teams away.'
Little did Spellman know, just how tight the game would be.
With ten seconds remaining in the game, the Profs found themselves down by a single field goal. Junior center Tim Cook inbounded the ball to senior guard Billy Care. Care passed it to Reddan, who dribbled to the top of the key, found a cutting Spellman and threw him a bounce pass right under the basket. One power dribble, a shot fake, and a hard foul later, Spellman was on his way to the charity stripe with a chance to tie the game. The first shot was good, the second rimmed out, and the Profs were 4.5 seconds away from their fifth loss of the season.
'We fouled their big guy right away,' said Spellman. 'We knew there was a good chance he wouldn't hit either shot, so we just fouled him as quickly as we could.'
Sure enough, Tarik Hanton, the 225 pound junior forward, missed both free throws, leaving the Profs with 3.1 seconds to travel the length of the court and win the game.
And with 3.1 seconds remaining, the smallest player on the Profs' roster, 5'8' Allen Pritchett, peacock dress made the biggest play of the night. Pritchett dribbled the sideline, enchanted dress beat two defenders, pleated dress dodged the long arm of Hanton,scored on a layup to win the game for Rowan.
'To win like that, it's just big for us,' said Pritchett. 'A loss would have killed this team right now. I knew I was going straight to the basket the whole way. A win like that is just big.'
The Profs look to continue their momentumas they welcome back Darby on their trip to William Paterson University this Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
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