Women’s basketball, wrestling

put it in the bank:
men’s basketball wins in ot

For senior Ryan Foster and the Muhlenberg men’s basketball team, the bank stayed open on the weekend.

Foster banked in the go-ahead three-pointer 28 seconds into overtime, depositing

Foster’s second three-pointer of the game (not banked in) was the 150th of his career. Entering the 2009-10 season, only 24 players in CC history had made 150 career treys.

a crucial 73-68 victory into the Mules’ season account.

“I mess around in practice banking in threes, and Pete [Barnes] always yells at me saying we should be taking game shots,” said Foster. “Afterwards I gave him a little look.

“I was definitely feeling it today, but I got lucky,” he added.

Luck or not, the win keeps Muhlenberg (11-8, 9-3) tied for second place in the Centennial Conference as the push for the playoffs heats up. Washington beat Gettysburg to put both squads in a tie for fourth, giving the Mules a two-game lead with six games to play – four of which are on the road. Muhlenberg has a four-game lead – and season sweeps – on the two teams (McDaniel and Johns Hopkins) fighting to get into the playoffs.

“This is an extremely hard place to play; they have a loud crowd and it’s a long bus ride,” said Foster. “This was a really important road win, and we’ve got to keep on rolling.”

Muhlenberg was rolling in the early

In addition to his two big free throws, Greenstone had a rebound and an assist in overtime. The Mules started and ended the month of January with overtime road wins in Maryland. The last time Muhlenberg won two overtime games on the road in the same season was 1950-51.

going and looked to be cruising to an easy win. Foster hit the game’s first two buckets and stayed hot from there, scoring 12 points in the period on 5-of-8 shooting. His second triple gave the Mules their biggest lead of the game, 27-11, with 5:27 left in the half.

A 9-2 McDaniel run to close the period cut the bulge to nine, and the Green Terror (8-10, 4-7) continued to trim down the lead to start the second half. A 15-5 run made the deficit one, and McDaniel finally took its first lead of the game at 46-45 with 10:59 left.

The Green Terror scored 10 straight points to build its lead to seven, but the Mules went on a run of their own, 13-3, during which Foster, sophomore Spencer Liddic and junior Evan Tozer all went 2-for-2 from the free-throw line, to take a 58-55 lead with 2:30 left.

With Muhlenberg’s lead down to 58-57 with under 30 seconds to play, senior Brian Frankoski drove to the hoop for a pivotal layup, making it a 60-57 game. But McDaniel drained a three with 8.8 seconds left to tie the game, and the Mules missed two last-second efforts to send the game to overtime.

Foster’s bank gave Muhlenberg a lead it wouldn’t relinquish in the extra session. Tozer hit its only other field goal of the period, nailing a fadeaway jumper in the middle to make it 66-61. The Mules went 8-for-12 from the line, including a crucial pair of free throws from sophomore Justin Greenstone with 16.7 seconds left and the lead at two, to seal the win.

“It feels like the first time since I’ve been here that we started with the lead, lost it and were able to climb back and win it,” said Foster. “That just shows how much we’ve improved our mental toughness.”

Foster finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Liddic had a game-high 21 points, 13 of which came at the charity stripe, and nine rebounds. Tozer netted 15 points and had two steals.
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