Hoover Clinches Win at Free Throw Line
Blue Knights top Rio Grande, 68-65
RIO GRANDE, Ohio (January 12, 2008) – Junior Dorian Hoover scored 11 points in Urbana’s 68-65 American Mideast Conference victory over Rio Grande Saturday at the Newt Oliver Arena. It’s not the 11 points that is impressive but the fact that he calmly sank three free throws in the final eight seconds to clinch the win for the Blue Knights in a game that saw 18 lead changes.

The Redmen owned a 29-28 lead at the half, outscoring Urbana, 15-2 in the final five minutes of the first half.

The game remained extremely tight in the second half with the lead changing hands on nearly every possession.  Rio grabbed its largest lead of the game at 62-56 with 3:12 remaining but was not able to hold as Urbana surged back and senior Joe Williams drilled a trey with 1:52 to play to give the Blue Knights the lead.

Senior Harold Haynes led the Blue Knights with 16 points.  Junior Charles Jefferson added 13 points. Senior Allen Drake led Urbana in rebounding with seven to go along with seven points.

The Blue Knights shot well from the field, making 27-of-49 (55.1 percent). Urbana’s efficiency at the free throw line made the difference in the game.  The Blue Knights canned 10-of-13 (76.9 percent) attempts from the charity stripe en route to the victory.
  
The Blue Knights (2-12, 1-1 AMC) have now won four of the last five in the series with Rio Grande (5-11, 0-2 AMC) and the two teams will mix it up again February 2 in Urbana.

Urbana hosts Cedarville (11-4, 1-1 AMC) in another AMC match up this Tuesday, January 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Grimes Center Gymnasium. The game will be the first home contest for the Blue Knights since November 19 when Urbana hosted West Virginia Tech.

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