BUFFALO, N.Y.—The Villa Maria College men's basketball team was at home on Tuesday and played an overtime thriller against Bryant and Stratton-Buffalo. Unfortunately, the Vikings were unable to secure the victory and fell by a final score of 88-85. Villa now holds a record of 3-4 heading into Thanksgiving, while the Bobcats move to 5-1. 
 
The Vikings got off to a sluggish start as they fell behind 7-0, but the team quickly responded with a run of their own. Juwan Beale kicked it off with a three-pointer that stopped the bleeding. Derick Simpson followed it up with five straight points to give the team an 8-7 advantage. Beale then made an imprint in the game as he scored 15 straight points for Villa and it helped give them a double-digit lead at the 8:24 mark. Bryant and Stratton mounted a comeback to cut the deficit to one-point, but timely buckets by Simpson and Beale helped keep the team ahead and take a 38-33 lead into half-time. Beale and Simpson combined for 35 of the teams points in the first 20 minutes of play. 
 
Jeru Molson and Trayvon Holt joined the scoring party to start the half and keep the team ahead, but the Bobcats were not going away. The opposition tied the game at 44-44 at the 14:42 mark and the two units began to trade leads and game tying baskets. Minutes later, Jaylin Rose converted on four straight free-throws before a Victor Fuller three-pointer pushed the lead to six with 6:44 to play. The six-point advantage was held on for a large portion of the second half, but Bryant and Stratton once again used timely makes to tie the game and send it to overtime with the score at 75-75. 
 
The overtime period turned into a battle of free-throw shooting for the Vikings as they went to the line 11 times in the five-minute span. Rose scored the first two points of overtime with two makes from the charity stripe to cut the deficit to one. Later, Beale helped tie the game up again with a layup with 2:33 to play. Beale kept it going with another make to give Villa a two-point advantage. With 42 seconds on the clock, Simpson hit a game tying free-throw, but the Bobcats stormed down the court and hit a game winning three-pointer with 12 seconds to play. 
 
Beale finished with 33 points on 12-for-20 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. Simpson recorded a double-double with 16 points and 17 rebounds, while also having five steals. Holt finished the day with a double-double as well with ten points and ten rebounds. 
 
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