Marquette's Last Second Free Throws Give Express 73-72 Win Over Cincinnati State

By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information

Cincinnati, OH---Jay Marquette grabbed an offensive rebound in traffic with two seconds left, fired up a shot attempt, got fouled, and sank both free throws to give the Express men's basketball team a 73-72 win over Cincinnati State today.

The Express had trailed the Surge 72-67 with 2:09 remaining before finishing the game on a 6-0 run. Down five, Joe Retic II stripped the ball from O'Brien Hobbs at halfcourt and drove the court for a lay-in to cut the deficit to three.

After a missed lay-up by Cincinnati State's Devonte Smith, Tony Boykins grabbed the defensive rebound and threw an outlet pass to Franklin Lindsey, who scored on a lay-up to cut the deficit to one.

The Surge then had another chance to extend their lead, but Lionel Hill stepped out of bounds with just over 20 seconds left. After a Cincinnati State foul forced the Express to re-take the ball out of bounds, Retic missed a 3-point field goal with six seconds left before Marquette won the game with the rebound and free throws.

Marquette was a huge presence early in the game with five early rebounds. He continued that throughout and led the team with 13 rebounds (eight offensive), while adding 12 points, two assists and one steal.

As a team, the Express had 20 offensive rebounds compared to just 10 for Cincinnati State. 15 of those 20 came from Marquette and James Kelly, who scored a team-high 21 points to go with 10 rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal.

Kelly had a couple big dunks in the game, but the biggest one may have came on a fast break with just over five minutes left. He caught a pass from Markese Allen and threw the alley-oop down with one hand that cut the Express deficit to 64-63 at the time.

In those final five minutes, Kelly scored six of his team's 12 points.

The Express controlled the game throughout much of the first half and took a 38-30 lead into halftime. They didn't commit a turnover until just over 10 minutes left in the first half, but Cincinnati State's defensive pressure in the second half forced the Express into 18 total turnovers.

After Retic hit a jumper with 18:36 left in the game to give the Express a 43-33 lead, the Surge went on a 16-5 run to take a 49-48 lead with 14:26 left.

Andy Bachman answered that run with a 3-pointer that was followed by a lay-in from Kelly to give the Express a 53-49 lead, but Cincinnati State re-took the lead just over a minute later and held it until Marquette's free throws. During that time, the Surge led by as many as seven.

Boykins was the third Express player to score in double figures as he finished with 13 points (all in the first half), five rebounds, two assists and one steal. Lindsey and Retic each finished with eight points. Retic had a team-high five assists and Lindsey had a team-high three blocks.

Cincinnati State's Winston Grays, who finished with a game-high 30 points, only had three points at halftime before exploding in the second half. In that half alone, he was 9-for-12 overall from the field, 5-for-7 from 3-point range and 4-for-4 from the foul line.

In the second half, Grays made more 3-pointers than the entire Express team did in the game. In fact, the Express shot only 4-for-28 from long distance in the game.

Aside from Grays, Tyler Fischl added 14 points and four rebounds for the Surge, while Smith had 12 points off the bench. Smith outscored the entire Express bench by himself.

Notes

The win evens up the season series with the Surge, who defeated the Express 88-75 in a non-conference matchup in Chicago, Ill. on Nov. 4.

Kelly's 9-for-13 performance from the field snapped a three game streak of 10 or more field goals made. In those three games, he shot 35-for-53 from the field. In conference play alone, Kelly is averaging just over 25 points per game, while shooting 34-for-50 (64 percent) from the field. Today was his 10th double-double of the season, as well.

The win, which was the fifth in a row for the Express, moves them to 14-6 overall and 3-0 in the OCCAC. Two of those three wins have came on the road.

Cincinnati State falls to 13-6 overall and 0-3 in the OCCAC. All three of their conference losses have been by one point.

The Express will return home on Wednesday to take on Lakeland Community College at 7:30 p.m. The Express is the only team in the conference that is 3-0, while Lakeland and Edison are both 2-0.