WICHITA, Kan. – The Friends University Falcons, just three nights after a thrilling comeback victory over McPherson College in their KCAC home opener, won for the second straight time by holding on for a 103-99 win over the Haskell Indian Nations University Indians tonight (Nov. 21) at Jack Kater Court inside the Garvey Center.
The Falcons led for all of 2:18, but couldn't escape the Indians until the final buzzer.
Following a three by Tate' Bear that made it a three-point game with 21 seconds left, the Indians got a stop defensively and had a chance to tie the score in the final seconds. But a missed three by Bansi King and one free throw by Kee'on Hutton with two seconds remaining finally sealed the victory for the Falcons.
The Indians scored the first five points of the game, but the Falcons scored the next five and took the lead for good when a pair of threes by Drew Patterson were sandwiched around a trey by Hutton.
Friends gradually continued to separate and built the lead up to 16 at 43-27 at the four minute mark of the opening half.
In what proved to be the theme throughout the night, the Indians got right back into it and scored the next 10 points to come within six before trimming the Falcon lead to 49-44 at the break.
During the early part of the second half, the Falcons again threatened to pull away when back-to-back buckets inside by KJ Spiller stretched the lead back to 14 at the 15:46 mark.
The Indians then answered with the next seven points in just over a minute to cut the lead in half.
After the Falcons pushed the lead back to 10, the Indians made their big move and used a 16-6 burst to force the game's first tie since it was 5-5 at the 18:26 mark of the opening half.
With the game still even at 79-79, a three-point play by Collin Maclin ignited a 12-2 spurt that made it 91-81 with 5:11 left.
Haskell continued to make things interesting and clawed back within 96-93 on a three-point play by King ahead of the closing sequence.
Career scoring nights from Hutton (24 points) and Spiller (22 points) sparked the Falcon offensive attack tonight. Hutton's stat line also included career-high totals of seven rebounds and four assists while Spiller blocked a career-high four shots to help the Falcons (3-3) swat nine shots as a team. Patterson finished with 14 points, with Tim Barbieri scoring 13 and recording a team-leading eight rebounds. Christian Williams added 12 points off the bench and Steele Chapman dished out a career-best five assists.
Bear paced the Indians (1-6) with 22 points and Nehemiah Boykins scored 18 with a game-high nine boards. Haskell also got 16 points from King and 15 points from Ira Blackbear.
The Falcons outrebounded the Indians 45-32 and shored up the defensive glass 30-19.
Friends also continued to shoot the ball well, hitting 57.6 percent (38-of-66) from the field after entering the night shooting at a solid 47.6 percent clip. The Falcons shot it even better in the second half, warming up to a robust 64.5 field-goal percentage (20-of-31) after halftime.
The Falcons will now be off for Thanksgiving Break and then resume KCAC action next Wednesday night (Nov. 29) at Bethany College for an 8 pm tip-off in Lindsborg, Kan.
