Box Score FORT SMITH, Ark. – A late St. Mary's rally to tie the game at 75-75 forced overtime where the Rattlers downed Newman, 93-79, in the Semifinals of the Heartland Conference Tournament on Friday (March 8) at Subblefield Center. The Jets drop to 20-7 on the season.
 
The Jets held its largest lead at 70-59 with 4:50 left on the clock after two Ryan McCarthy free throws. The Rattlers ended regulation on a 16-5 run to force overtime at 75-75. St. Mary's scored 11-straight points to tie the score at 70-70 with 1:41 remaining. Two Kevin Kotzur free throws knotted the score.
 
Bobby Wesley hit a 3-point with 1:14 left for a 73-70 Jet advantage, and after a Rattler turnover, Wesley put in two free throws with 31 seconds left to put the Jets up 75-70.
 
Kotzur grabbed an offensive rebound and made a layup for a 75-72 score with 15 seconds remaining. The Rattlers were forced to foul, and Trae Beck missed the front end of a one-and-one, and the Rattlers rebounded. St. Mary's Moses Sundufu knocked down a 3 with 7 seconds left to tie the score at 75-75.
 
In the overtime period, the Rattlers scored the first 10 points and led 85-75 with 1:43 left on the clock. The Jets scored only four points in the 5 minute overtime, and St. Mary's pulled away for the 93-79 win.
 
After trailing 44-43 at halftime, the Jets jumped on the Rattlers early in the second half. With the Jets down 49-46, NU went on an 18-4 run to go up by 11 points at the 9:38 mark with a 64-53 score. McCarthy and Shamar Acuay scored the first 10 points of the run on jumpers and layups then Darrell Traylor hit back-to-back 3-pointers to up the score to 62-53 at 10:27. A Ryan Mesh layup after an offensive rebound gave the Jets the 64-53 advantage. The Jets continued to lead and went up by 11 again at the 4:50 mark on two McCarthy free throws.
 
The first half saw the Rattlers score seven of the first eight points for a 7-1 advantage at the 18:25 mark. The six-point lead was the largest of the half as it was a close first 20 minutes. In a high scoring half, the Rattlers led 44-43 at intermission.
 
Traylor led the Jets with 18 points, including 4-for-5 from three-point range. Acuay and McCarthy added 15 points each. Mesh had a team-high eight rebounds.
 
The Jets shot 43.1 percent (28-65) in the game. The Jets went 51.6 percent (16-31) in the first half and 47.8 percent (11-23) in the second half, but got cold in overtime, hitting only 1-of-11 shots (9.1 percent).
 
The Rattlers shot 56.7 percent (34-60) for the game, including 73.9 percent (17-23) in the first half. In the overtime period, St. Mary's went 4-for-6 from the field (66.7 percent). The Jet defense did force the Rattlers into 19 turnovers.
 
The Jets (20-7), who were ranked No. 4 in the South Central Regional rankings this week, will wait to see if they make the South Central Regional, which will be announced on Sunday (March 10).