Box Score

Darrius Bryson

Central Oklahoma UCO 20-10

Central Missouri UCM 24-5

Central Oklahoma UCO

20-10

Final

Mar. 05, 2015

Central Missouri UCM

24-5

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Central Oklahoma UCO	28	38	66
Central Missouri UCM	39	28	67

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 3/5/2015 9:43:00 PM

Late Rally Falls Short

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (March 5) – There would be no miraculous comeback for Central Oklahoma this time, though it was oh so close.

Mahlon Jones' heavily contested layup just ahead of the final buzzer refused to fall and the Bronchos dropped a hard-fought 67-66 battle to No. 18-ranked Central Missouri here Thursday night at Municipal Auditorium in the quarterfinals of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Post-season Tournament.

UCOs had overcome 12-, 13- and 17-point deficits in their last three wins, but the defending national champion Mules built a 14-point second-half advantage and were just able to hold on in improving to 24-5 and moving into Saturday's semifinals. The Bronchos ended the season 20-10.

"One of our goals tonight was to be even at halftime and then we go in down 11," said head coach Terry Evans, whose team trailed 39-28 at intermission. "This has been our pattern lately, but our kids showed a lot of heart and they fought hard and we came up just a little bit short.

"I'm really proud of our young men. They played hard all year and we just didn't quite get over the hump."

Central Missouri led 67-62 with 2:33 remaining, but didn't score again as the Bronchos almost pulled off another crazy comeback.

Philip Brown had an eight-foot baseline jumper at 2:14 to pull UCO within 67-64, the Mules missed two free throws at 1:41 and Darrius Bryson's follow shot with 1:00 remaining made it 67-66.

The Bronchos forced a turnover with 26.8 seconds left and took time out with 8.7 seconds to play. Jones made one of his patented drives to the basket at 0:02, but his left-handed effort while absorbing contact came up short and UCM rebounded the miss as the horn sounded.

Brown, Trai Jordon and Seth Heckart had 11 points apiece to lead UCO, with Jordan and Heckart also pulling down seven rebounds each. Cal Andrews added 10 points.

The Bronchos shot just 30.0 percent (6-of-20) from 3-point range, while UCM hit 9-of-16 long-range shots (56.3 percent). Kyle Wolf did most of that damage with a 7-of-8 performance from beyond the arc in scoring a game-high 25 points.

UCO led only once, at 1-0 a minute into the game on a Brown free throw, and the Bronchos missed their first five shots in quickly falling behind 7-1.

The Mules pushed their lead to double digits at 26-16 and were up 36-21 late in the half before UCO got five points from Andrews in cutting the deficit to 11 (39-28) by intermission.

Central Missouri's lead grew to 42-28 just 40 seconds into the second half before the Bronchos got back in the game with a rapid-fire 11-0 scoring spurt.

Jordan started that run with three consecutive layups -- getting nice feeds from Brown on the last two – before Jones converted a Bryson mid-court steal into a layup.

Jarred Bairstow capped the surge with a block on the defensive end and a corner 3-pointer on the other off a Garen Wright pass that cut UCM's lead to 42-39.

The Mules pushed their lead back to eight at 52-44, but UCO came back again and got within three (57-54) when Heckart splashed through a corner trey at the 8:40 mark.

It was close the rest of the way and the Bronchos came up just short of extending their season and the careers of seniors Brown, Bryson and Jones.

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