January 21, 2015-The Emporia State men were outscored 9-3 in the final 1:37 in a 67-57 loss at Northeastern State on Wednesday night. Micah Swank scored a career high 19 points for the Hornets in the loss.
The Hornets led 14-12 wth 10:16 left in the first half when the RiverHawks went on an 8-0 run to take a 20-14 lead with 5:50 remaining. Swank stopped the run with a three-pointer at the 3:41 mark to pull the Hornets with three. He hit another trey at the buzzer to keep the Hornets within three at 28-25 going to the locker rooms.
After Northeastern scored first in the second half, Emporia State went on an 9-2 run capped by Terrence Moore's old fashioned three-point play with 17:13 left to take a 34-32 lead. An 11-2 run by the RiverHawks gave them the lead for good as they went up 43-36 with 12:11 left. The Hornets cut the lead to three on a Swank three-pointer with 7:14 left and Josh Pedersen gave Emporia State the ball on a steal with 6:53 remaining. Jevon Taylor was called for an offensive foul on the break following the steal and another 8-2 run by Northeastern State put the Hornets down 55-46 with 4:17 left.
Emporia State had one more run of their own left as they went on an 8-3 run to cut the lead to 58-54 with 2:17 left. The Hornets got the ball back on a Pedersen rebound with 1:56 left. But a turnover by Perryonte Smith led to an old-fashioned three-point play by the RiverHawks Keon Littleton with 1:37 left to put Northeastern State up 61-54. A Tyler Jordan turnover then led to another fast break bucket for the RiverHawks as they went up 63-54 with 1:15 remaining. The Hornets then missed three of six free throws while the RiverHawks hit four of four in the final 59.5 seconds for the final score of 67-57.
Swank was the only Hornet in double figures while Jay Temaat, Moore and Taylor all scored nine points.
Emporia State returns to action on Saturday at Central Oklahoma. Tip-off from Hamilton Fieldhouse in Edmond, Okla. is set for 3:30 p.m.
NOTES
Terrence Moore scored nine points to become the 24th Hornet to score 1,000 career points and the first to do so as a junior since James McCallop in 1992-93.
