Eastern Kentucky wins with improbable buzzer beater

Glenn Cosey banked in a half-court buzzer-beater shot to give the Eastern Kentucky men’s basketball team a 79-78 win over visiting Southeast Missouri Saturday night.

Cosey not only finished with a team-high 20 points, but also the No. 1 top play on Sportscenter’s Top 10 Plays Saturday night.

Eastern Kentucky trailed by 10 points with less than four minutes to play before making a furious rally. Senior Orlando Williams lit the spark with back-to-back buckets, including a 3-pointer, within a span of 20 seconds.

With 55 second remaining, Tarius Johnson tipped in the ball to tie the game at 74 and cap off a 12-2 Colonel run.

Southeast Missouri’s Lucas Nutt hit a floater at 39 seconds. Cosey then made a pair of free throws for the Colonels with 26 seconds left to play.

But Redhawk Tyler Stone answered with a put-back layup with 6.6 seconds on the clock to keep Southeast Missouri up by two.

Following Stone’s bucket, Cosey took the inbounded ball just over the mid-court line. Despite having two timeouts, the Colonels elected not to call a timeout.

From 37 feet out Cosey hurled up the game-winning shot, sending McBrayer Arena into a frenzy.

After an official review of Cosey’s shot, 0.4 seconds were put on the clock. However, Southeast Missouri never got a shot off on its final possession.

Eastern Kentucky led by as many as 14 in the first half, 34-20, only to see Southeast Missouri storm back in the early stages of the second half.

The Redhawk defense held the Colonels without a field goal for nearly seven minutes on the way to building a 55-49 lead.

The Redhawks eventually stretched the lead as many as 11 points, when they led 63-52 with nine minutes in regulation.

For Southeast Missouri, Jarekious Bradley recorded a career-high 32 points, but was kept scoreless in the final 11:19 of the game.

Eastern Kentucky improved to 7-3 in the Ohio Valley Conference and third overall in the standings with the win while Southeast Missouri, the OVC’s preseason favorite, fell to 3-6 in conference and second to last in the west division.

Players of the Week

Eastern Kentucky’s Glenn Cosey won the Ohio Valley Conference player of the Week.

Aside from the buzzer-beater against Southeast Missouri, he finished the game with 20 points, three assists, two rebounds and two steals.

He started the week by hitting 5-of-9 from 3-point range and scoring 18 points in a win over Tennessee-Martin.

For the week the senior averaged 19.0 points, 3.0 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals/game while making 45.5 percent (10-of-22) from the field, 47.1 percent (8-of-17) from 3-point range and 90.9 percent (10-of-11) from the free throw line.

Cosey ranks third in the OVC in scoring 19.1 points per game.

Two Murray State players each won OVC Newcomer and Freshman of the Week in Jarvis Williams and Cameron Payne, respectively.

Williams scored a career-high 28 points and added 14 rebounds as Murray State went on the road and topped rival Austin Peay by a 96-88 margin on Friday night.

It marked the ninth double-double of the year for the transfer from Gordon State College, which ranks him tied for third in the OVC.

Payne earned his sixth OVC Freshman of the Week honor of the season after scoring 12 points and dishing out 12 assists in a road victory over Austin Peay.

The 12 assists were a career-high and tied for the third-most by an OVC player in a game this season.

Anthony Catezone can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].