Box Score WISE, Va. – UVa-Wise men's basketball could not get a final shot off at the buzzer to tie the game and send it to overtime as Shepherd University squeezed out an 85-82 victory in the David J. Prior Convocation Center Thursday night. The Cavaliers (3-16, 1-12 MEC) got 29 points and 13 rebounds from senior forward Matt Day (Buckhorn, Ky.) and 28 points and eight assists from sophomore guard Philip Owens II (Virginia Beach, Va.), but it wasn't enough to defeat the visiting Rams (11-8, 6-7 MEC).
 
Tied for the seventh time of the game at 80-80 after a layup by Day with 2:49 left, the Cavs could not get a stop as the Rams got a three-pointer from senior forward Ryan McTavish on the very next possession. Three Cavalier turnovers in the final two minutes, including a critical one with 21 seconds left, forced UVa-Wise to commit four consecutive fouls to send the Rams to the free-throw line.
 
Shepherd sophomore guard Skyler Roman knocked down a pair of key free-throws to put the Rams up 85-80 with only 14 seconds remaining. An Owens II layup put the Cavs back within three at 85-82 with nine seconds to go. After fouling Shepherd's Roman, UVa-Wise hoped that he would miss the front end of a one-and-one, which he did. Grabbing the rebound on the missed free-throw, Day brought the ball front court with 8.2 seconds left but could not get a three-point shot off from the left wing as time expired.
 
Down by eight at 22-14 with 13:28 to go in the first half, UVa-Wise went on a 14-0 scoring run over the next five minutes of play to go up by six (28-22) with 8:09 left in the opening half. The eight-point lead early in the half was the largest margin by any team in the entire game.
 
A 13-2 run over the following four minutes of play gave the lead back to the Rams at 35-30. The Cavs entered halftime down 40-38 and shot 46 percent (15-for-33) in the opening 20 minutes of play. Shepherd made nine first-half three-pointers on only 15 attempts (60 percent).
 
Both teams went back and forth in the second half with neither the Cavs nor the Rams gaining more than a five-point advantage. UVa-Wise led by five twice in the second half at 67-62 with 10:14 to go and lastly at 74-69 with 7:31 remaining after a three-pointer by redshirt sophomore guard Ricardo Hill Jr. (Cincinnati, Ohio). A Day jumper gave the Cavs their last lead of the night at 78-77 with 3:23 left in the game. Day's shot was quickly answered with a made three-pointer on the other end by Shepherd sophomore forward AJ Carr.
 
The Cavs shot 46 percent (30-for-65) for the game and were 9-for-29 (31 percent) from distance. UVa-Wise went 13-for-16 (81 percent) from the free-throw line, while Shepherd shot the ball at 49 percent (34-for-69) for the night. The Rams finished at 44 percent (12-for-27) from beyond the arc and 63 percent (5-for-8) from the foul line.
 
Day's 29 points and 13 rebounds was his 10th double-double performance this season, while Owens II's 28 points was a season high. Hill Jr. recorded a career-high 12 points to go along with four assists. Sophomore forward Dimitri Sousa (São Paulo, Brazil) added eight rebounds as junior transfer forward Gervelle Kidd (Martinsville, Va.) contributed seven points and six boards.
 
Shepherd was led by McTavish with 19 points and 10 rebounds and Carr with 14 points and 12 boards. The Rams' Naim Muhammad scored 17 points as Roman had 13 points and a game-high 11 assists. Steffen Davis added 12 points of his own for the Rams.
 
The Cavs will return game action Saturday at 4 p.m. when they host second-ranked Fairmont State in the Prior Center.
 
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