February 9, 2002
Senior Rod Overmyer scored his 1000th career point and led Bluffton College to an 87-78 victory in overtime at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky on Saturday afternoon.
Overmyer hit the 1,000 point mark with a free throw with 1:12 left in regulation, and his free throw with nine seconds left tied the game at 73-73 to force overtime.
Bluffton trailed by four points at 71-67 with under a minute to go, but junior Derek DeNero, who finished the game with 21 points, scored five points in seven seconds to give BC a one-point lead with :42 left to play. DeNero scored a layup and was fouled with :49 to go. He made the free throw, then stole Transy's inbounds pass and hit a running jumper in the lane to give BC a 72-71 lead.
Transy's Jimmy Kosieniak, who led the Pioneers with 22 points, hit a bucket in the lane with 13 ticks left to swing the lead back to the Pioneers, but a TU player was whistled for a foul as Bluffton attempted their last shot, and Overmyer knocked down one free throw to send the game into overtime.
Overmyer, who also collected his 100th career assist in the game, hit a two-point jumper and a 3-pointer on Bluffton's first two trips down the court in the extra session. Sophomore Michael Kingsley, who scored 12 points in the game, added a field goal to give BC a five-point lead with 3:27 left.
Transy connected on three free throws to close the gap to within two points at 80-78 with 1:57 to play, but Bluffton scored the game's final seven points to notch their nine-point win, which was their largest lead of the game.
Transy was 0-for-8 from the field in overtime, while Bluffton was 4-for-6 and hit 5-of-6 free throws.
Bluffton trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half, but shot 53% from the floor in the second half to claw their way back into the game. The Beavers took a two-point lead at 54-52 with 11:49 left to play in the second half, but Transy went on a 9-0 run to take a seven point lead before Bluffton settled down and began their victorious comeback.
Bluffton got 29 points off the bench as freshman Brad Boyles scored 13, Kingsley added 12 and freshman Gabe Denning and Bryce Beilharz both added a bucket.
Bluffton improves to 9-14 overall and 2-11 in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, while Transy falls to 4-17 overall and 3-9 in the HCAC.
Bluffton will host Defiance College on Wednesday night at 7:30 in the final home contest of the season for the Beavers.