Late surge sends Rio men past Brescia

The RedStorm rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit by rolling up 50 second half points - including the final 18 of the night - and pulling away for an 83-65 win over Brescia University, Thursday night, in River States Conference action at the Moore Center.

Rio Grande - which was among the teams receiving votes in the most recent NAIA coaches' Top 25 poll - rebounded from its first RSC loss of the season last Saturday at home to Indiana University Southeast, improving to 15-5 overall and 9-1 in league play.

The host Bearcats slipped to 8-6 overall and 5-5 in the RSC as a result of the loss.

Brescia scored the final 10 points of a back-and-forth opening half to take a 41-33 halftime lead and then stretched their advantage to its largest point of the night, 57-46, after a bucket by Michael Caswell with 10:41 remaining in the contest.

But the Bearcats managed just eight points the rest of the night, while Rio Grande caught fire offensively - particularly from beyond the three-point arc - and mounted an eventual game-winning comeback effort.

The RedStorm connected on 10 of their 17 trifectas after halftime, including one by freshman Trey Robertson (Waverly, OH) with 6:56 left to play which knotted the score at 63-all.

A jumper by fellow frosh Trent Hundley (Mount Orab, OH) 28 seconds later gave Rio a 65-63 advantage - its first lead since a 33-31 cushion with just under 2-1/2 to play in the first half that preceded Brescia's half-closing go-ahead run - but the 'Cats tied the game again just over a minute later on a layup by Tay Smith.

Those points, though, would be the last scored by the hosts on the night.

Senior Shiloah Blevins (South Webster, OH) hit one of two free throws with 5:08 remaining to put the RedStorm in front to stay and Robertson hit consecutive treys on each of the next two Rio possessions to kickstart the game-ending 18-0 run.

Rio went 17-for-29 overall (58.6%) and 10-for-18 from three-point range (55.6%) in the second half, while Brescia went just 11-for-33 overall (33.3%) and 2-for-9 from distance (22.2%) after the intermission.

In fact, after the game-tying layup by Smith, the Bearcats went 0-for-10 from the floor.

 Freshman Kaden Warner (Cincinnati, OH) led five double-digit scorers for Rio Grande with 19 points - 10 of which came in the second half.

Hundley scored 13 of his 16 points and snared six of his team-high eight rebounds after the break, while Blevins added 15 points to the winning effort.

Junior Miki Tadic (Hilversum, The Netherlands) had 10 of his 13 points after halftime and Robertson had all but three of his 12 points over the final 20 minutes.

Rio finished the game 28-for-53 from the floor overall (52.8%), including 17-for-34 from three-point range (50%), and was 10-for-11 at the foul line (90.9%).

The RedStorm did finish with 17 turnovers on the heels of a season-high 18 miscues in Saturday's loss, but committed only six of the turnovers after halftime and also finished with a 34-29 edge in rebounding.

Rio also had 21 assists as a team, including five each from Warner, Robertson and Hundley.

Brescia finished at 41 percent shooting (26-for-63) and hit 11 of its 24 three-point tries (45.8%), but the Bearcats made it to the free throw line just three times - going 2-for-3 - and had 15 turnovers of their own.

Smith led the way in a losing cause with a game-high 24 points, 10 rebounds and five steals, while Carrieun Mathis tallied 14 points and Elijah Pughsley added 10 points and a game-high six assists.