INDIANAPOLIS – It took not one but two overtimes for a winner to be decided in Saturday's matchup with RV Marian. Unfortunately, Taylor fell 85-83 at the final buzzer in the regular season finale.
Jason Hubbard and Anton Webb led the Trojans offensively, scoring 36 and 19 points respectively. Hubbard also collected 12 rebounds for his eleventh double-double of the season. The 19 points for Webb were a career-best in his second start of the year.
Hubbard rose above 2,400 career points during the game, finishing at 2,431 to climb all the way up to 13th on the Crossroads League's career scoring list.
Marian took an early lead at 16-8 before Hubbard started to take over for TU.
Hubbard scored the next six points and 11 of the next 13 for the Trojans, closing the gap to one at 22-21.
The two teams traded buckets for the next five minutes, with the lead changing four times before Marian went on a run to grab a six-point lead.
Taylor (13-15, 7-11 CL) cut the lead to five as the teams headed to the locker room.
TU slowly carved into Marian's lead, finally grabbing its first second-half advantage after seven-and-a-half minutes of play in the second half when Hubbard banked in a layup to set the score at 53-52.
A layup by Jeff Clayton stretched TU's lead to four, which was its largest of the afternoon.
A back-and-forth battle ensued the rest of the way, with neither team leading by more than two and the score being tied four times in the final five minutes.
After Webb hit a layup to tie the game at 67 with under two minutes remaining, each team missed multiple shots that could have won it in regulation.
The first overtime continued the tight contest with neither squad able to get any breathing room with a Hubbard dunk giving Taylor a 77-75 advantage with under a minute before Marian tied it again to send it to a second overtime.
Marian (20-8, 10-8 CL) jumped out to a three-point lead at the start of the second overtime, which was the largest lead for either team since Taylor led by four with over five minutes left in regulation.
Taylor fought back to take a one-point lead before the Knights scored once again to take back the lead.
TU had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead with under ten seconds left, but a three-point attempt fell short once again.
The Trojans struggled from behind the arc, hitting only two of 24 shots from three-point land, but were able to outrebound Marian 43 to 42 and turned the ball over only nine times throughout 50 minutes of action.
Taylor begins postseason play in the Crossroads League Tournament against cross-county rival No. 13 Indiana Wesleyan (20-8, 14-4 CL) on Wednesday, February 22, on the road, with tip-off set for 7:00 pm.
