The victory leaves the Redhawks 19-9 with an 8-3 league mark, good enough for second place in the Western Athletic Conference. The Aggies (22-5, 9-2) still own a one-game advantage over SU in the standings.
With Jordan Hill scoring 11 of his game-high 24 points in overtime, the Seattle University men’s basketball team finally was able to run away from New Mexico State 73-63 in the extra five minutes Saturday afternoon at KeyArena.
The victory leaves the Redhawks 19-9 with an 8-3 league mark, good enough for second place in the Western Athletic Conference. The Aggies (22-5, 9-2) still own a one-game advantage over Seattle U in the standings. The 19 victories is the most for the SU program in its modern-era, Division I history.
In the overtime, Josh Hearlihy hit a three-pointer and Hill scored on a three-point play for a 65-59 SU lead with 2:14 to go. Hill also secured things with four free throws in the final 37 seconds.
“What a great day for Seattle U and for our basketball program,” said coach Jim Hayford. “Today feels good because it was against a quality opponent. We have a lot of respect for our opponent, but tonight the story is our seniors. It’s the commitment they made a year ago when they came and they trusted their senior year to this program.”
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Hill and Hearlihy, who hit two free throws near the end of regulation to force the overtime, are both seniors. Another key senior was Richaud Gittens, who hit two three-pointers early in the game to get the Redhawks going and also got the defensive assignment on Zach Lofton, the Aggies’ top player.
The teams were tied at halftime and Seattle used a 6-0 run early in the second half to take a 34-28 advantage.
Hearlihy scored 19 points and Aaron Menzies had 14 rebounds in addition to his seven points for SU. Lofton scored 26 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Aggies.