HAMMOND, Ind. – The Purdue Northwest men's basketball team suffered a tough, two-point overtime loss to visiting Davenport, 93-91, Saturday afternoon in Hammond.
 
PNW fell to 3-8 (0-4 GLIAC) on the year as DU moved to 7-4 (3-2 GLIAC).
 
HEAD COACH BOOMER ROBERTS:
"Really hard loss today. Guys competed their tails off. They played with love, joy, and toughness for 45 minutes. We had the lead and the ball with 30 seconds to go and couldn't close.
 
It's cliche, but learning to finish is a big deal. The only way to learn is through experience, even though it hurts. We've got to make free throws in clutch time, and one more stop would've sealed it.
 
There's a lot of season left and we're getting better. We know we're going to make a push."
 
STAT LEADERS

• Mikell Cooper (Milwaukee, Wis./Bradley Tech) scored a career-high 34 points – which tied the PNW men's basketball single-game record and marked the highest scoring total in the team's D2 era (Torrence Johnson. & Chandler Spring. each had a 34-point game in 2016-17)
• Cooper knocked down four treys and finished 10 for 12 at the free-throw line
• Anthony Barnard (Kokomo, Ind./Kokomo) posted his second double-double with 16 points and 12 boards
• Anthony Irvin (Chandler, Ariz./Corona Del Sol) scored 10 points with four rebounds, three assists and three steals
• Caleb Zurliene (Breese, Ill./Mater Dei) grabbed a career-high 11 boards with eight points, four assists, four blocks and two steals
• Gregory Boyle (Chicago, Ill./Phoenix Military Academy) tied for the team-high four assists with nine points

 
How it happened: After a back-and-forth first half that saw PNW lead just before halftime, the Pride faced an 11-point deficit with under 10 minutes left in regulation.
 
However, PNW would climb back to take a lead in the final minute.

A Joan Giner (Tenerife, Spain/IES Mayor Bernabé Rodríguez) layup sparked a 27-13 run for the Pride down the stretch, and a pair of free throws made by Zurliene gave PNW an 81-78 lead.
 
An unfortunate sequence followed for PNW though, as Davenport's Chris Rollins drilled a game-tying three with 7.4 seconds.

The Pride had the last look for a chance to win at the buzzer, but a floater in the lane rimmed out at the final horn of regulation with the score tied at 83-83.
 
The two teams would continue to exchange blows in the overtime period. After DU jumped out to a five-point lead, Irvin knocked down a big three for the Pride and a pair of free throws from Boyle tied the game at 91-91.

But, Rollins came up clutch again for the Panthers with a layup in the final seconds. He initially lost control of the ball on a drive to the basket, but recollected and finished under the rim with less than a second left on the clock.
 
PNW registered a season-low nine turnovers in the contest while shooting 39% from the field. The Pride fell victim to missed opportunities at the line where they shot 29 of 42 (69%).
 
Jakub Dombek led six Panthers in double digits with a team-high 17 points and five rebounds. Rollins finished with 16 points.
 
UP NEXT
PNW closes out the calendar year with a non-conference game on Sunday, Dec. 19 at Illinois-Springfield. The Pride will return to John Friend Court on Thursday, Jan. 13, when they host Parkside.

FOLLOW THE PRIDE
For all the latest information on Purdue Northwest men's basketball, please visit PNWathletics.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Pride (@pnwathletics & @PNWBasketball) on Twitter. You can also find the Pride on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.