Rally comes up short for BU at Park-Gilbert

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Trailing by as many as 10 with 13 minutes to play, the Bellevue University men's basketball team mounted a comeback to pull within two in the final seconds before dropping a 66-63 contest to Park University Gilbert.

Bellevue falls to 0-3 with the loss while Park evens their record at 1-1.

TJ Fritz and Nigel Wilson led four Bruins in double figures with 15 points apiece. The former did so on 5-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc.

Bellevue raced out to a 7-2 lead but an 8-0 run by the Buccaneers put the hosts in front 12-9 at the 13:58 mark of the first half.

Back-to-back threes from Christian Carter and Fritz put BU back ahead but Park Gilbert scored nine of the next 12 to regain the upper hand.

Makeem Loudermill connected on a trio of free throws within a 20-second span to close the gap to four before Park closed the half on an 8-2 run to take a nine-point lead, 37-28, into halftime.

Bellevue and Park Gilbert traded blows for much of the second half. With 5:11 to play, the Buccaneers held a 10-point lead that Bellevue closed to four, 60-56 on a three from Carter with 3:11 remaining.

Marquis McKinzey answered with a three, his only basket of the game, for the Buccaneers and Caleb Ivy added a jumper to take a six-point lead with just over a minute left to play.

Carter made a couple of shots inside the final 30 seconds as Park went just 1-for-3 from the line, but Wilson's desperation heave fell short and the Buccaneers held on for the 66-63 win.

Carter scored eight of his 10 in the second half and Jerome Bynum added 10 in the loss.

Bellevue out-rebound Park 38-36 while the Buccaneers won the turnover battle committing 14 and forcing BU into 20.

Bellevue shot 43% from the floor and hit on 11-of-25 three-pointers. Park shot 41% and made up for hitting just two treys with a 10-of-13 effort at the free throw line.

LC Ballard and Dhol Majak led Park with 16 points each. The duo was joined in double figures by Ivy with 12 to go along with a game-high nine rebounds.

The Bruins are back in action on Saturday, Nov. 4 when they face Embry-Riddle at 4 p.m.

Note - Stats were unofficial at the time of this recap; an updated version of this recap will be completed tomorrow.