MEADVILLE, Pa. --
Brian Roberts, Jr. hit a layup with four seconds left to give the Gators a 76-75 lead, and a Kenyon layup at the buzzer rattled out for Allegheny to hold on for the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) win.
The Gators will head into NCAC Tournament action with a 10-14 overall record and a 6-12 mark in league games. Allegheny, which reached double-digit wins for the first time since 2014-15 and will be making its first appearance in the league's championship event in four years, will travel to Wooster for a 7 p.m. tip-off in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, Feb. 19.
Trailing by four, 71-67, with just over four minutes to play,
Jordan Rawls hit a three-pointer at 4:14 to get the Gators within a point, and then hit a jumper at 2:39 to give the hosts the 72-71 lead. The junior made it six-straight points in the game when he made a free throw at 2:02, but the Lords answered with a bucket at 1:46 to knot the score at 73-73. Roberts, Jr. made the second of two free-throw opportunities with 1:17 remaining, which kept the Gators ahead until the visitors made a layup with 14 seconds to play, and had an opportunity to make the margin two points with a free throw, but
Zach Ecker rebounded the miss and set up Roberts, Jr.'s late-game heroics.
Allegheny trailed by one at halftime, 40-39, thanks in part to seven made triples by Kenyon in the period.
Rawls led four Gators in double figure with 19 points, while also adding nine rebounds and six assists. Roberts, Jr. posted 18 points, six boards and four assists, while
Billy Urso reached double digits for the first time in 2019 by putting up 16 points (his second-highest total of the year) on his Senior Day.
Caden Hinckley scored 10 points and snagged five rebounds, and
Lamar Todd posted eight points and five boards, with Ecker contributed five points and five rebounds in 15 minutes.
