The Tiffin University men's basketball team narrowly fell to Purdue Northwest on Thursday night, falling just short in their bid for a comeback victory.
The Pride jumped the Dragons out of the gate, rolling forward on a 17-4 run to lead by thirteen points with 12:32 remaining in the 1st half. Tiffin roared back with a 12-4 run to cut their deficit to 20-16 with a little over nine minutes remaing before halftime. Purdue Northwest fought off Tiffin's run, and regained a double digit lead as they headed to the halftime locker room ahead 39-26.
Tiffin's offense picked up the pace in the 2nd half, narrowing the gap to 43-41 after just five minutes of play. Tiffin kept the heat on the Pride, and tied the score 50-50 with an Alex Brown made triple with 08:49 remaining. The Dragons continued to hold off the Pride, and with a Tristan Popa made three with 02:13 left in regulation led 59-58. Neither team had much success from the field over the course of the final minute of action, but a late foul by Tiffin enabled the Pride to have their chance at the stripe. With five ticks left in the game the Pride buried a pair of free throws to lead 60-59. After a Tiffin timeout, Terrell Mabins' three-point attempt at the buzzer fell short as Tiffin fell 60-59.
The Pride held a significant advantage at the stripe, going 18 of 22, while the Dragons had only 10 attempts, making nine. The Dragons' 2nd half defense was impeccable, holding the Pride to 30.4% shooting from the field.
Individually, Alex Brown was the star for Tiffin, scoring 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting while snagging a team high eight rebounds.
The Dragons fall to 7-18 overall and 3-14 in the GLIAC.