Boopie Miller’s game-winning floater with two seconds left lifted SMU to a dramatic 79-77 win over Cal Baptist at the Acrisure Holiday Invitational in Palm Desert, Calif., on Tuesday.
With 15.7 seconds left, Cal Baptist’s Dominique Daniels Jr. beat Matt Cross on a dribble and drove for a game-tying layup. But coming out of a timeout, and against the Lancers’ zone, Miller answered promptly, driving for the go-ahead shot.
Miller scored 16 points for SMU (5-2), shooting 6-for-14 from the floor. B.J. Edwards tallied a team-high 17 points for the Mustangs, who earned their first single-digit victory of the season. SMU shot 52.7 percent from the field.
Kendal Coleman, who had 15 points as part of a 20-4 run that tied the score midway through the second half, led Cal Baptist (4-3) with a career-high 32 points. He shot 12-for-16 from the field, 6-for-8 from 3-point range, and added six rebounds.
The Lancers pushed SMU to the brink over the final 20 minutes, overcoming a 13-point halftime deficit to tie the score at 54-54 with 11:13 to play. Coleman’s stellar shooting kept Cal Baptist stride-for-stride from that point on, as the game was tied six more times down the stretch.
With SMU up 75-73 and just over a minute left, Edwards passed up a 3-point shot from the right corner, and instead dribbled forward for a mid-range shot, converting on a jumper that put the Mustangs up by four. But Cal Baptist answered with a 4-0 spurt, capped by Daniels’ tying layup, ahead of Miller’s late-game heroics.
SMU opened the game on a 10-4 run, highlighted by Edwards’ fastbreak layup, but Cal Baptist soon knotted the score at 10-10. The Mustangs answered in the form of a 14-3 spurt and seized the game’s first double-digit lead on Miller’s offensive rebound and putback.
While Cal Baptist eventually cut the lead to three on a pair of Bradey Henige layups, SMU closed the half on an 11-4 run. The Mustangs took a 45-32 lead into the intermission after Chuck Harris scored on back-to-back drives to the lane in the final minute.
The Mustangs will play in the event’s title game on Wednesday against the winner of the late Tuesday contest between Washington State and Fresno State. Cal Baptist will oppose the late-Tuesday loser in the consolation game on Wednesday.
–Field Level Media
