Rigney, who scored a career high 14 points, also drew a charge on the ensuing Mary Hardin-Baylor possession with 28 seconds to help seal the game. McMurry led 37-27 at half and pulled away for a 44-29 lead with 17:39 remaining before the Crusaders rallied.
McMurry’s Casey Jones scored a layup with 12:43 remaining to put McMurry up 53-43 and the Crusaders responded with a 12-2 run and tied the game 55-55 when Kevin Guyden hit a 3-pointer with 9:51 remaining.
McMurry temporarily lost control of the game and Mary Hardin-Baylor’s Neiman Ford stroked a 3-pointer of his own with 4:32 remaining to give the Crusaders its largest lead of the night at 66-59. McMurry cut the lead to four points on a pair of free throws from Alvin Stevens and then Rigney struck again. The freshman picked up two straight steals, with the first takeaway resulting in a missed 3-pointer by Bud Willis, but the second resulting in a fast-break layup, which Rigney finished on his own to cut the lead to 68-66.
Stevens had a key steal with 1:31 remaining and Terrance Willis tied the game with a pair of free throws with 1:23 left. The Crusaders’ Ryan Burgart took the lead back with a thundering dunk with 1:05 remaining but Gardner re-tied the score with 25 seconds remaining at 70.
On the next possession, Gardner stole the ball at mid-court from Connor Kuykendall and slammed it home on the fast break with eight seconds remaining to put McMurry up two points. However, Stevens fouled Burgart with five seconds remaining, and though Burgart had missed all five of his previous free-throw attempts, he knocked down both to tie the game at 72. Bud Willis tried a 3-pointer at the buzzer, but it rimmed out and forced overtime.
Stevens scored five of McMurry’s eight points in overtime to go along with Rigney’s game-winning shot. Bud Willis led McMurry with 17 points, Stevens added 14 along with Rigney’s 14 and Gardner finished with 10 points.
All five starters scored in double figures for the Crusaders in the losing effort. Matt Dickey had 18 points, Guyden and Burgart had 14 points, Ford pitched in 11 and Zane Johnston had 10. Once again, McMurry’s depth proved to be a tool as its bench outscored UMHB’s reserves 28-9.
McMurry and UMHB each have one game remaining. The Crusaders face Hardin-Simmons across town Saturday at 3 p.m. If McMurry beats Concordia-Austin Saturday, and Mary Hardin-Baylor falls to the Cowboys, McMurry would take sole possession of the ASC West title. If both teams win, they’ll share the ASC West title, but UMHB will enter the tournament as a No. 1 seed. If McMurry loses, and UMHB wins, the Crusaders will have sole possession of the west division title. If both teams lose Saturday, both teams would share the title, but UMHB would still be the No. 1 seed as the point differential in the two teams’ matchups this year would give UMHB the advantage.
The ASC Tournament will be in Clinton, Miss. Feb. 23-25.