The Ashland University men’s basketball team fell for the first time of the season 68-66 on a final play to the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals.

“It was a tough one,” said head coach John Ellenwood. “They executed down the stretch and that is a sign of good coaching.”

The teams remained neck-and-neck almost throughout the entire game even up until the last minute.

With ten second to go, junior Wendell Davis scored bringing the Eagles ahead 66-64, but as quickly as they were able to score, the Cardinals pushed right back, tying the game again at 66.

With the ball in their possession, the Eagles called a timeout with 1.2 seconds to go on the clock.

A faulty throw by sophomore Marsalis Hamilton caused the ball to tip off the fingers of junior Boo Osborne.

With 1.2 seconds left, it was now the Cardinals’ ball.

Differing from AU’s out of bounds play, the Cardinals found success, bouncing the ball in to senior Damon Bozeman who scored an easy shot off the backboard and winning the game for the Cardinals at the buzzer.

“We didn’t execute,” said Ellenwood. “The last play we called the play rocket and we were supposed to throw it in bounds, I don’t know. We just did not execute the play.”

AU was 8-0 going into the game while the Cardinals held a 5-2 overall record. The Eagles are tied for first in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference South with Walsh University while the Cardinals are a half game behind Lake Superior State in the GLIAC North.

The game was tight from start to finish; the score was tied a total of nine times and 17 lead changes throughout the game.

“There was a lot of back and forth in the last 30 seconds,” said Ellenwood. “Wendell made a great play, then their kid made a great play. We just had to get the ball in-bounded and we didn’t do that. Coming into the out of bounds, we thought they were going to throw a lob.”

Davis led the team in points scoring 28 for the Eagles followed by Osborne with 14 and junior Adrian Cook with 11.

The game had a slow start, neither team really seeming to take charge and become the obvious leading squad of the game.

“I thought we were very lackadaisical in the first half,” said Ellenwood. “I don’t know if it was because we had a game on Wednesday and they didn’t, but I think they outperformed us in the first half and their game plan was pretty good defensively on us.”

The Eagles will have to sit on this loss for eight days before their next matchup on Dec. 20 at home against Shawnee State.

“We can learn a lot,” said Ellenwood. “I think it good that we have a little adversity now going into our next game before break.”