February 25, 2015-The Emporia State men ended the regular season with a 74-67 home win over Pittsburg State on Wednesday night. Terrence Moore had 24 points on eight of ten shooting to go with five assists and four steals to lead the Hornets, who did all the could in their final regular season game to keep their season alive.
After three ties and four lead changes in the first 11:24 of play Pitt State used a 7-0 run to take a 23-17 lead with 7:15 left in the half. The Gorillas led by seven with 3:35 left but a 10-5 run capped by a buzzer beating three-pointer from Jay Temaat sent the Hornets to the locker room down only two at 33-31.
Trailing by three with 15:21 left in the game, Emporia State used a 14-2 run to go up 51-42 with 9:56 left. The Hornets would not trail the rest of the game, although the Gorillas closed to within a point at 60-59 with 4:27 left. Temaat sank a three-pointer to push the lead back to two possessions with 4:07 left.
When the two played earlier this year in Pittsburg, Emporia State had a five point lead with 2:33 left, only to see the Gorillas score the final six points and pick up the win. Wednesday the Hornets had a five point lead with 2:22 remaining and a foul sent Pitt State's Javis Flynn to the line with 1:58 left and a chance to make it a one possession game. He missed one of the free throws and Moore scored with 1:43 left to push the lead to six.
Josh Pedersen hit one of two free throws with 1:11 left to put the Hornets up 69-62 but Dakota Jones drilled a three-pointer with 1:03 left to cut the lead to four. With 44 seconds left Perryonte Smith had perhaps the biggest steal of the season for the Hornets as he stripped Devon Branch and went coast to coast for the lay-up and a six point Emporia State lead at 71-65. Moore would hit three of four free throws in the last 30 seconds to ice the win.
Moore was joined in double figures by Temaat with 17 and Jevon Taylor with 14 points.
Emporia State will have to wait out the results of Northeastern State's games this weekend to find out if they will qualify for the MIAA Tournament. The Hornets need two RiverHawk losses to grab the final spot in the MIAA Tournament.
NOTES
Moore moved past Dennis Smith (1,152 points from 1964-67) into 17th on the Emporia State career scoring chart with 1,161 points.
