MORRISTOWN, Tenn. — Demarius Boyd gunned in an off-balance three-pointer with 1.3 seconds left in the game to lift Walters State to a thrilling 100-97 victory over No. 24-ranked Dyersburg State Saturday afternoon at 'Z' Buda Gymnasium.
The victory breaks a four-game losing streak for the WSCC men.
The Senators blew and 18-point lead in a matter of minutes and actually had to come from behind to knock off the Tennessee Community College Athletic Association leading Eagles.
Bryce McBride's three-pointer with 13.8 seconds to go tied the game at 97-97. The Senators rushed into front court with the ball getting free and a Dyersburg player coming up with it.
However, the Eagles fell to the floor and the ball was loose when Kobe Powell dove in and managed to grab it and shovel it to Boyd, who let fly with the game-winner with defenders all around,
It was the 14th win against 10 losses for Coach Bill Carlyle's Senators who improved to 7-6 in the league. Dyersburg fell to 15-3 overall and 10-3 in the conference. Dyersburg saw its lead reduced to a half game over Jackson State at 9-3.
Powell made 10 of 14 from the floor including 4 of 5 three's and led the Senators with 30. He had lots of scoring help as Paris Taylor tossed in 20 and raked off 14 rebounds. Luiz Machado added 14 points, Boyd had 13 and Sly Thompson 10.
McBride was a scoring machine for the Eagles, pouring in 44 points. He was 7-11 behind the arc and hit 13 of 15 free throws in an amazing performance.
Ramon Cao made all six of his field goal attempts including 4 of 4 threes and finished with 17. Famous Jones scored 13 and Mark Edmond 10.
"I thought we played pretty good basketball for about 75 percent of the game," said Carlyle. "But we went completely brain dead the rest of the time."
Carlyle was referring to the fact his team led 79-60 with 8:57 left in the game and was behind by one at the 5:24 mark. At one point, the Eagles scored 10 points without the home team even getting the ball to front court.
"Dyersburg is a really good basketball team," Carlyle continued. "They're No. 1 in the nation in three-pointers made and attempts and we certainly didn't do anything to change that today."
The Eagles fired up 41 shots behind the arc and made 18 of them and had six different players make at least one.
"We're just happy to get back in the win column," Carlyle said. "We didn't play very well in that one spurt but it was great to win this one. We had to be doing something right, though, to get Dyersburg down like we did."
Walters State hit 33 of 63 shots for 52.4 percent and went 8-17 on three-point attempts. The Senators also cashed in 26 of 36 free throws and had a whopping 49-19 rebounding advantage.
The Eagles were 31 of 66 for 47.0 percent and connected on 17 of 23 foul shots.
A basket by Boyd gave the home team its biggest lead before Devin Pitts hit a triple to start the Eagles' comeback. From there, McBride and Jones combined for the next 26 points by the visitors with Jones' three giving them an 89-85 advantage with 4:18 left.
The only points for Walters State in that time were a free throw by Taylor with 7:55 on the clock, a three-point play by Tyler Arnold at 7:01 and two charity tosses by Jermize Weedle with 5:11 remaining.
Dyersburg got the ball back with the four-point lead but missed a three and the Powell drove for a layup. Taylor hit two free throws to tie it with 3:09 to go. McBride hit a driving layup, but Machado tied it with two free throws and Powell made two more for a 93-91 lead.
Cao nailed a three to put the Eagles in front for the final time with 1:20 on the clock. Bryant then hit two straight baskets before McBride's final three.
The Eagles started quickly and led by 27-18 midway of the first half. However, the Senators reeled off nine straight to tie it and there were two ties and five lead changes the rest of the half.
Walters State led 49-45 at the half and started to pull away in the second half as an eight-point run followed by an 11-1 spurt to open the gap to 68-51. Dyersburg pulled back within 70-57 before a 9-3 run made it 79-60.
NEXT UP
Walters State hits the road Wednesday for a key conference match up with Cleveland State. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.