No one in the empty Cintas Center was alive the last time the Eastern Kentucky Colonels defeated the Xavier Musketeers.
The Colonels took the measure of the Musketeers on December 13, 1954 in a 60-40 game. The Colonels were intent on breaking the nine-game losing streak to the higher profile team from the Big East with its NCAA tournament history. The 99-96 overtime loss didn't diminish the heart with which the group from Richmond, KY showed determintation
Playing a pressing up tempo basketball style that forced Xavier to turn the ball over 25 times, Tre King brought the Colonels all the way back from an 12-point deficit with a 3-point shot with 3.4 seconds left to send the game into overtime.
King led all scorers with 25 points and at 6'9" wouldn't have been anyone's first choice to take that shot but Eastern Kentucky coach A.W. Hamilton knew King was up to making the tough shot.
Hamilton and King, who is from Lexington, Kentucky played for the heralded Hargrave Academy where Hamilton was the head coach before returning to his Central Kentucky roots. King took the inbound pass from Wendell Green Jr. and realizing that he need not rush the shot, took one dribble to his right and buried the key shot over a perfectly placed Zach Freemantle, the 6'9" sophomore team captain of the Musketeers.
"It was a great shot," said Xavier's Josh Carter of the game tying basket. Freemantle's body language screamed, "There was nothing more that I could do."
King opened the scoring in overtime with another 3-pointer to give Eastern its first lead of the game since Cooper Robb, a transfer from UNC-Charlotte hit a shot beyond the arc with 16 minutes to go in the first half.
Robb had 19 points in the game one behind freshman Curt Lewis, who scored 20 points.
In the end the Musketeers were two much for the upset minded Colonels. Freemantle lead the Musketeers with 24 points and 13 rebounds to more than compensate for the shot King made at the buzzer. Josh Carter had 20 points and 11 rebounds for Xavier. KyKy Tandy contributed 18 points as did Nate Johnson. Paul Scruggs became the 57th Xavier player in the schools 100-year basketball history to score 1,000 career points.
Scruggs needed eight points to join the club and finished with nine because he fouled out of the game with 3:30 left in the game. Scruggs had been charged with a technical earlier in the second half.
"We need Paul Scruggs on the floor," a visibly upset Xavier coach Travis Steele said. "He picked up that technical and it was a stupid foul and they (the officials) were right to call it."
The irony is that his replacement, Johnson, converted a 3-point shot to tie the game at 88 and another a minute later to give Xavier a 91-88 lead with 1:49 to play.
Xavier had one more scare left.
Jomaru Brown hit a jump shot behind the arc with one second left. A closer review showed that Brown's big toe was on the line which made it a two-point basket, leaving the challengers facing a 97-96 deficit.
Tandy made two free throws to seal the Musketeers fourth win in six days.
They blew out Oakland by over 52 point on Wednesday. They held onto a 51-50 win on Thursday when Bradley's player missed the front end of a one and one with time expired. Xavier held on to beat Toledo by a 76-73 score on Friday.
The game with Eastern Kentucky was closer still and four games in six days were no excuse.
"There is a little fatigue," admitted Johnson after the game. "It is no excuse. Coach keeps telling us there are no days off in college basketball."
The story of the game was turnovers. Xavier committed 25 to Eastern's 11. Eastern scored 23 of its points off turnovers; easy baskets after steals. They trapped the entire game.
"They made us play at their pace," Carter said.
"Eastern should have won this game," Steele fumed. "It was the worst game that I've been a part of. A guard should want to be trapped. He should feed off it. We have to get better. They took 91 shots to our 60. They had 18 offensive rebounds and that's ridiculous. A lot of those were long rebounds. It seemed like every time there was a loose ball, Eastern got it. We have to want it more.
Eastern came into the game with wins over North Florida 87-67 and Charleston 60-50. The loss to Xavier was their fourth for a team that was picked to finish fourth in the Ohio Valley Conference.
They are poised to do better than that wearing T-shirts that say Family Love, Hamilton, who was a member of a state champion at Scott County High in Georgetown, Kentucky has two players who were runners up to a state tittle at Scott County, Robb and Michael Moreno.
The Colonels will try to rebound against the University of South Carolina - Upstate on Wednesday.
Wednesday is the next date for Xavier who put their 4-0 record on the line against Tennessee Tech.
