SSU men drop Senior Day heartbreaker to Ohio Christian, 63-62
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Ohio Christian (13-13, 8-7) | 23 | 40 | 63 |
|
Shawnee State (17-8, 11-4) | 22 | 40 | 62 |
The men's basketball program at Shawnee State got 30 points and 12 rebounds combined from Tyreke Johnson and Chaze Harris and rallied from a 58-53 deficit to take a 62-61 lead with less than 30 seconds to play, but a go-ahead layup by Ohio Christian's Cale Rammel with 12 seconds to go forced the Bears to settle for a 63-62 home setback against the Trailblazers Saturday evening in Waller Gymnasium.
Senior guard John Dawson, who got his sixth start of the season in Saturday's River States Conference matchup, helped the Bears get going early as the Huntington, W. Va. talent scored nine of Shawnee State's first 16 points by going 3-of-5 from long range for the contest -- giving SSU a 16-10 lead with 9:33 to play in the opening half. A 13-6 push over the final nine minutes of the first half, however, gave Ohio Christian a 23-22 advantage heading into the locker room.
Led by a three-quarters court press spearheaded by Johnson and Harris, Shawnee State flipped the script early in the second half of competition as the Bears, down 25-22 with 19:32 to play in the game, went on a 10-2 run to take a 32-27 lead with 17:30 to play in the second half, and grabbed the point back after Ohio Christian rallied to tie the score at 34 apiece as Johnson answered with a three-pointer to put SSU ahead, 37-34, with 13:34 to go.
Johnson, who posted a team-high 16 points and matched Harris for the second-most rebounds of any SSU player in the game with six, notched seven of his 16 tallies from the 19:32 to 13:34 marks, keeping SSU ahead by a possession in doing so.
However, despite another three-ball from Johnson that knotted the score again at 42 apiece with 8:48 to play, Ohio Christian nearly doubled Shawnee State up over the next four minutes, taking a 56-50 lead with 4:41 to play.
The score remained relatively stagnant at around a two-possession cushion before Shawnee State rallied one final time over the game's final three minutes.
Following a layup a minute earlier by Harris that cut the Ohio Christian lead to a 58-55 count, Tre Beard, following Shawnee State's second consecutive defensive stop, had a scary moment with 2:26 to play, being upended on a defensive rebound and falling hard on his elbow. Despite the fall and the obvious pain, Beard looked as if he would pull Senior Day dramatics, driving the lane and again taking hard contact to set up a pair of successful free throws to cut the gap to a slim 58-57 margin.
Then, after another defensive stop, Beard sent the home crowd into delerium as the guard smoothly stepped into a rhythm three, canning it with a minute-and-a-half to play exactly to put Shawnee State ahead by a 60-58 margin with his five straight points. Rammel answered back with a three of his own just 25 seconds later, but 21 seconds after that, fellow senior big Keith Germain hit a turnaround jumper that gave SSU a 62-61 lead with 41 seconds to play.
However, Ohio Christian answered. Working from the left side, Levi Seiler found Rammel cutting from the opposite baseline. Rammel gathered from the right side of the basket to the left, hung, and put up a layup that bounced off the rim three times and dropped. Beard and Germain each had a look at the basket before the buzzer, but their attempts fell just shy in the loss. Beard finished with 10 points in the contest, while Germain added in nine points himself.
Despite the setback, Shawnee State remains solidly in second place at 17-8 overall and 11-4 in the River States Conference standings. The Bears can clinch a No. 2 overall seed in the upcoming River States Conference Tournament if Shawnee State can claim a road victory against West Virginia Tech, who sits a game back of the Bears at 17-7 overall and 10-5 in the River States Conference. Shawnee State won the first meeting between the two teams, 80-76, back on Jan. 30 at Waller Gymnasium.
Additional
AJ Belton did the so-called 'little things' well once again, grabbing seven rebounds and posting two blocks to lead the team in both categories in 27 minutes off of the bench.
A look at the seniors are below:
John Dawson is the latest in a strong basketball family tree that includes fellow siblings Marquis Dawson, who played at Middle Tennessee State and was once a teammate of former NBA player O.J. Mayo, Mikal Dawson, who is currently playing at Akron, and Jordyn Dawson, who also played at Akron.
Dawson, however, has made his own name in the family lineage.
For his college basketball career, Dawson has scored 935 points. He was teammates with current SSU junior Tyreke Johnson and current SSU assistant coach Chandler Fointno at Lakeland Community College. The trio helped Lakeland go 26-8 together and advance to the NJCAA Division II Quarterfinals.
"For me, growing up, being a part of a team meant that you were part of an extended family," Dawson said. "You may not have known that in the beginning because we didn't really know each other yet but as the season progresses, you build a bond with teammates that you now call brothers and lifelong friends. You have good days and bad days with your teammates but that's what being a family is all about because at the end of the day we're all trying to achieve the same thing, which is the end goal of winning a championship and hanging banners. My Mom taught me a quote for my siblings and I when we were younger and the quote was 'together We stand, divided We fall." It's something that I still live by to this day regardless of what I may be doing as long as it includes others."
Dawson currently holds a 3.2 GPA. His future plans are to become a coach with aspirations of one day becoming a head coach and training the younger generation on the sport that he once played.
The last member of Shawnee State's national championship winning team in the 2020-21 campaign, SSU men's basketball talent Tre Beard has exactly 85 victories to just 36 losses in a Shawnee State uniform over his four seasons with the Bears, making Beard the most successful player, in terms of victories, to ever set foot on campus as a Shawnee State men's basketball talent.
With greater opportunities in front of him this season, the 5-10 guard from Chillicothe has blossomed into one of the most efficient guards in the country.
Currently, Beard's splits include 10.4 points on 47.2 percent shooting from the field and 47.9 percent shooting from three-point range. He's scored in double-figures 13 times this season, including a career-high 23 points against Wilberforce back on Dec. 5 – a game where Beard went 6-of-6 from the field, 3-for-3 from three-point range and 8-of-8 from the free throw line in a 99-94 victory.
Ballhandling wise, Beard has 40 assists to just 27 turnovers in 25 games. He's had nine games without a turnover.
In the classroom, Beard has a 3.59 GPA. He will again be honored as an Academic All-Conference honoree and will be named as an a NAIA Scholar-Athlete to boot.
"It means a lot," Beard said. "Coming into the year I thought it'd be way more difficult than it actually turned out to be. Each and every one of the new guys as well as the three new coaches is exactly what was needed to help this program continue to rise! We are not done yet, but I love what we have done so far this season."
Beard's plans include graduating next year and then pursuing a basketball career overseas.
A 6-5 forward from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Keith Germain has proven himself as one of the most dynamic talents in the NAIA.
Germain, after two seasons at Lakeland Community College and a 2022-23 season where he was named All-River States Conference at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, has continued to blossom, notching 17.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. He's scored in double-figures 20 times this season and has five double-doubles to his credit.
Germain also seems to rise to the competition. Four of the five games in which he produced double-doubles were against opponents who held some type of ranking in the NAIA Men's Basketball National Poll. His season-high was a 30-point outing against nationally-ranked Georgetown, whom SSU beat 83-78 – a game in which Germain also added eight rebounds.
"It means a lot to play here with this staff and players," Germain said. "They have helped me become a better player and man on and off the court."
Germain's plans and goals for the future are to play pro basketball and become a physical therapist.