BOCA RATON, Fla.—Lynn University's men's basketball team suffered their second overtime loss of the season to the Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish 79-71 on Tuesday.
Michel Vidal posted his first double-double of the season with 13 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. The senior tallied a 5-9 shooting mark from the field and three assists on 35 minutes played. Freshman point guard, Jerrell Oxendine amassed a career mark with 17 points in the loss.
The Fighting Knights maintained the lead for most of the first half but could never pull away from the Sailfish. Lynn's largest lead during the first period was eight on a Vidal layup with 08:46 left in half number one. At the intermission, the Blue & White registered a five point advantage at 31-26.
The Knights committed only one first-half turnover but shot 34.4 percent from the field to go along with a 0-9 clip from behind the arc. The first half saw six lead changes and two ties.
Lynn came out of the locker room and posted a 6-2 run to grab a nine point tilt with 16:53 on the clock in a 37-28 game. Then again with 15:08 remaining in the game, the Knights went up nine on a Slobodan Miljanic layup to make it Lynn 41, PBA 32.
PBA then began to chip away at Lynn's lead and knotted the game up with 06:58 left on a Terrell Terry three. After back-to-back of buckets from Miljanic, LU stretched its lead back up to six at 54-48 with 04:03 left to play.
With less than a 01:00 to play, Lynn's lead was a mere two points and a jumper from PBA's Terry tied it up for the fourth time at 58. The Knights answered right back on the next possession after Brandon Smith converted on a tough jumper in the lane to put the score at Lynn 60, PBA 58 with 00:25 seconds on the clock.
But with 00:10 seconds left in regulation, Palm Beach Atlantic's Matthew Gierl hit a baseline floater to tie it up and send the game to overtime.
Lynn never trailed the entire second half. The Fighting Knights' woeful shooting from behind the arc continued in the second period, as they posted a 3-12 mark from downtown.
PBA took control during the overtime period and outscored Lynn 19-11 including jumping out to a 67-61 lead just over 2:00 into the overtime. During the overtime period, PBA was 2-2 from the field, 1-1 from behind the arc and an astonishing 14-15 from the free throw line.
For the game, Lynn totaled 35.9 percent shooting from the field, a 19.2 percent mark from three-point land and 62.5 percent from the charity stripe. PBA countered with an amazing 50.9 percent shooting clip from the field while connecting on 19-24 free throws. The Knights were outrebounded by a margin of 28-49, and the Sailfish bench outscored Lynn's bench by 15 points.
After the Thanksgiving holiday, the Fighting Knights pick back up on Saturday, November 26, against Pfeiffer at 2 p.m. in the de Hoernle Center. Live coverage can always be found on the Fighting Knights Network. Go to LynnFightingKnights.com and click on the Game Central icon to listen to the live action.
