The Coyotes got an outstanding night of basketball out of freshman Carson Jones, but his outstanding effort came up just short as Saint Mary Spires topped Kansas Wesleyan 77-76 on Saturday night at Mabee Arena.
Jones scored 21 points, including hitting a 3-pointer as time expired to draw the Coyotes within the final score of 77-76.
The second half was a battle back and forth between the teams. Saint Mary led early in the half and then it was the Coyotes' turn taking as much as a 4-point lead at 52-48 with 11:28 to go on a 3-pointer by Alex Littlejohn.
Saint Mary came back and tied it at 52, only to see the Coyotes score the next four to take a 56-52 lead. The Spires took the lead with 7:45 to go, and grabbed it for good with 4:04 left.
KWU had tied it at 63 with 4:56 left when a 7-1 run by Saint Mary gave the Spires a 70-64 lead with 1:27 left. The Coyotes didn't give up, getting within two with 16 seconds left on a Littlejohn bucket, and were within two again after Izaiah Hale hit a 3-pointer with four seconds left. The Coyotes fouled and Saint Mary hit free throws for the four-point lead before Jones' half-court heave scored as time expired.
Wesleyan commanded a 6-0 lead to start the game, but Saint Mary came back and tied it at 7 with 14:45 to go.
KWU led by as many as five, the last time at 18-13 with 10:51 left, but an 8-2 run by Saint Mary gave the Spires a 21-20 lead.
It was tied 23-all with 7:10 left when Saint Mary would push out to a 31-24 lead with 4:34 to go in the half. The Coyotes scored the next six to get within a point but the Spires hit a 3 at the buzzer to take a 34-30 lead into the break.
After struggling to score in the first half both teams shot over 50 percent in the second half as KWU was 13 of 22 in the second half percent, finishing the game 22 of 49 for 44.9 percent. Littlejohn had 23 points and Hale was the only over Coyote in double figures with 11.