Jadis Jones scored a career-high 27 points, and Reggie Bass provided the big time shots as the Lindenwood men’s basketball team (13-14, 8-8 OVC) won an overtime thriller 81-78 over the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles (9-17, 4-12 OVC) to cap off the home season slate for the Lions.
Lindenwood finished 11-3 at home this season including 7-3 in conference play. Its 13 wins this season are the most wins in a season since the 2018-19 campaign.
Along with his career-high 27 points, Jones also added seven rebounds and two steals in the win.
Bass, fresh off his 30-point output on Thursday night, followed it up by scoring 14 points, including hitting the game-tying three with four seconds to go in regulation and hitting the game-sealing free throws in overtime to seal the win for the Lions.
Markeith Browning also tallied 14 points, along with six assists and four rebounds in the win.
Jordan Wildy, on his senior day, racked up a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds in his final game inside Hyland Arena.
Both teams would come out stifling on defense the first nine minutes of action as Southern Indiana led 12-10. Out of the timeout Reggie Bass would give the Lions a 13-12 lead off a three-pointer as both teams would exchange the lead before after a Wildy jumper, the Screaming Eagles would lead 22-21 at the under-four media timeout. The Screaming Eagles would then close out the half on an 11-2 run and take a 33-23 lead into the break.
The Screaming Eagles were led by Jayland Randall and Stephen Olowoniyi who scored 14 and 12 for Southern Indiana. Jones and Wildy each had six for the Lions in the opening 20 minutes of play.
Down by 10 to begin the second half, the Lions began mounting their comeback. However, they were only to get as close as seven in the first six minutes of the second half as Southern Indiana had the answer for any basket the Lions made and the Lions weren’t able to stack makes with stops on the defensive end.
Southern Indiana would go on an 8-0 run to grow their lead to 16 at 54-38 as things looked bleak for the Lions. But slowly but surely, they began to chip away at the Screaming Eagle lead. Lindenwood would go on a 21-6 run over the course of a nine minute span to cut the lead to one at 60-59 after a Nathan Johnson Jr layup. Lindenwood would regain their first lead since the first half with 3:59 left after a pair of free throws from Jones giving the Lions a 61-60 lead.
Southern Indiana would get their lead back to three multiple times with under 90 seconds to play following layups from Olowoniyi. With 14 seconds left, Anias Futrell would be fouled and sent to the free throw line with the Lions down 71-68. Futrell would hit both and the Lions would be forced to play the foul game and send Jack Campion to the foul line. Campion would convert both extending the lead back to 73-70.
Browning would get the ball and take it to the right wing looking to get off a three when he would find Bass who would take one dribble and fire a fadeaway three right in front of the Lions bench and bury it tying the game at 73 and sending Hyland arena into a frenzy as the game was headed for overtime.
Lindenwood would jump out to a five point lead in overtime at 79-74 behind a pair of Bass layups. Southern Indiana would cut the lead to one at 79-78 but then neither team could find a basket. Finally, with five seconds left Bass would be sent to the foul line and would drill both free throws to give the Lions a 81-78 lead and sound defense on the other end would prevent the Screaming Eagles from getting off a good shot as Damoni Harrison would airball the game-tying attempt and seal the Lions win.
Lindenwood ends their season with four straight road games beginning first with Little Rock on Thursday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. streaming exclusively on ESPN+.
