BUENA VISTA, VA – Southern Virginia's David Baety hit a baseline jumper with 2.5 seconds left in regulation as the Knights upset the York College men's basketball squad 64-62 in Capital Athletic Conference action on Saturday in Buena Vista, Virginia.

The Spartans fall to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in the CAC while the Knights improve to 3-4 overall and 2-0 in the league. Knight Sports Arena has been a house of horrors for the Spartans as York is now 0-3 after making the six-plus hour bus trip to Buena Vista.

The Knights game winning shot was allowed as the Spartans struggled to take care of the ball late in the game. York took a 62-60 lead with 1:23 left as Matt Scamuffo (Chalfont, Pa./Central Bucks South) knifed into the lane and hit a lay up to give York the lead. York forced a missed three-point jumper and Blayde Reich (Lebanon, Pa./Lebanon) pulled in the defensive rebound. York then turned it over and the Knights tied the game as Jordin McGuigan collected the loose ball and sailed to the basket for the tying lay up with 40 seconds left. York then turned it over again with 25 seconds left, setting the stage for Beaty's game-winning shot. The Spartans had the ball at half court with 1.4 seconds left but they were unable to get a game-tying shot attempt off.

While the ending was painful for the Spartans, the game was lost over a 12-minute span in the second half when the Green and White struggled to score. The Knights held the Green and White to just six points over the first 12:09 of the second half. While the Spartans were struggling offensively, the Knights tallied 18 points as they took a 51-44 lead. The Spartans got back on their feet and battled back, tying the game at 56 on a Brad Wesner (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Trinity) lay up with 4:50 left in the game.

That started a stretch of back and forth play. The Knights took a two-point lead followed by the Spartans splitting two free throws on consecutive possessions to tie the game at 58. Junior Dalton Myers (Finksburg, Md./Westminster) gave the Spartans a short lived 60-58 lead on a jumper from the low block with 2:03 left but the Knights responded with an Aarun Rumbaugh jumper from the elbow a mere 15 seconds later to tie the game at 60, setting the stage for the fateful final 1:30 of play.

The first half saw York fall down early as the Knights led 7-2 less than two minutes into the game. The Green and White responded by hitting their hosts with a 21-4 run that turned the five-point deficit into a 12-point lead with 10:05 left in the half. York look poised to blow the Knights out of their barn but SVU started chipping away at the York lead. SVU went on a 10-3 spurt, cutting York's lead to six with 6:41 left in the half. The York lead would vacillate between five and eight points over the final six minutes of the half before the Spartans settled for a six-point lead (38-32) at the break.

Rumbaugh led the Knights with a game-high 16 points off the bench. He was 8-for-14 from the floor while he also had four rebounds in his 25 minutes of action. Baety was the other Knight in double figures as he tallied 12 points, five rebounds, three assists, and a steal in his 34 minutes of play. Kevin Walker added nine points, eight rebounds, and three points before fouling out with 5:03 left in the game.

Reich led the Spartans as the sophomore had a career-high tying 15 points and a career-high nine rebounds as he narrowly missed his first career double-double. Reich was 5-for-11 from the floor and 5-for-9 at the line in 31 minutes of play. Myers added 14 points, five rebounds, and three assists for York. He was 4-for-5 from the field and 6-for-6 from the line for York. Scamuffo was the third Spartan in double figures as he tossed in 10 points in 27 minutes of action.

The Knights finished the game shooting 49.1% from the floor but just 4-for-21 (19%) from three. The Knights went to the line just five times in the game, making four of those attempts.

York shot 50% (21-of-42) from the floor for the game but struggled from three as they went just 1-for-14 (7.1%) from distance. The Spartans were again solid from the free throw line as they went 19-for-26 from the stripe. The Knights attempted 15 more shots than York and made seven more shots from the field, counteracting the Spartans big edge at the line.

York outrebounded the Knights 31-25 and held a 14-9 edge in second chance points. The Spartans committed 15 turnovers in the game and SVU turned that into 22 big points. York was credited with a season-low five assists in the loss.

The Spartans return to action on Saturday, December 12 when they host the University of Mary Washington in a key Capital Athletic Conference contest. Tip time from Wolf Gymnasium is set for 3:00 pm.

Blayde Reich photo courtesy of David Sinclair