Men's basketball falls to 7-3 in conference play after dropping a heart breaker to Centenary College. The Celts defeat came after Adam Kanafani's game tying basket was waived off at the end of regulation.
The Celts and Gents would trade baskets to open up the contest as the teams were knotted at 10 points a piece with 12 minutes left in the half. For the rest of the half the Celts would struggle to score, as the Gents went on a 18-2 run which would help them claim a 32-19 lead heading into the half.
With a lot of work to do to begin the second half, the Celts began to slowly chip away at the deficit and would eventually trim the lead to three, after back-to-back three point makes by Austin Arnold and Calen Anderson. But UST could not get over the hump and would find themselves down 68-59 with 2:30 left to play. The Celts began their rally scoring six points in 13 seconds with two quick triples by Adam Kanafani and Juan Hood. Following four straight points from Cameron Gims, the Celts found themselves in a one-possession game down 71-69 with 35 seconds left. Two missed free throws by the Gents opened the door for the Celts to potentially send the game to overtime or possibly even sneak away with a win. With five seconds left in the game, the Celts went to Adam Kanafani to send the game into overtime. Kanafani would score on the play, but not until after the final buzzer had already sounded.
Cameron Gims led the Celts with a double-double, posting 12 points and 10 rebounds to go along with a pair of both steals and blocks. Adam Kanafani led all scorers for the Celts with 18 points, shooting an efficient 6-9 from the floor and 2-4 from distance. Juan Hood would also reach double figures with 16 points. It was a story of two halves for the Celts, turning the ball over 15 times in the first half and only once in the second. Despite a 50 point second half, the Celts struggles in the first half would come back to haunt them in the two-point loss.
The Celts will host the SCAC Basketball Quarterfinals next weekend.
