Mart free throws help Rush give No. 5 Campbellsville Tigers 1st loss

WILLIAMSBURG, Kentucky — Rayshawn Mart did it again, making two free throws with two seconds remaining Saturday to lift Xavier University of Louisiana to a 68-66 basketball victory against NAIA No. 5 Campbellsville in the Cumberlands Classic.
     
The XULA men (8-5) won their fourth in a row and snapped the 13-game win streak of the Tigers (13-1). The Gold Rush defeated a top-5 team on the road for the first time in 10 years.
     
Mart, a 6-foot-3 sophomore guard from Houma, La., and a graduate of H.L. Bourgeois High School, scored last-second winning points for the second straight game, the third time this season and the fourth time in the last 20 games. Mart finished with 12 points.
    
"We had to go 94 feet with five seconds left," XULA head coach Alfred Williams said. "Rayshawn got the ball near midcourt, got a step on his man, pushed it up the court, got to the rim and got fouled. We wanted the ball in his hands. We knew he would give us a chance."
     
Jacob King missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer for Campbellsville, which led 56-48 with 9 1/2 minutes remaining and 58-53 with six minutes remaining.
     
"We just tried to guard everybody tough on the last possession," Williams said, "but we were glad that Hagen Tyler (29 points) didn't get the ball."
     
Jeff Dixon scored 19 points, 16 in the first half, for the Gold Rush, and William Loyd had 14 points and eight rebounds. Ed Carter had nine points, eight rebounds and five assists, and Galen Smith had eight points and six rebounds.
     
Tyler made five 3-pointers — four in the first 10 minutes of the second half — for Campbellsville, and Andrew Smith scored 13. The Tigers led 31-30 at halftime after trailing 20-15 in the 12th minute.
     
"We just kept fighting," Williams said. "Our guys believed in themselves. They got stops, stayed the course and made some buckets when we needed to."
     
BOX SCORE

XULA outshot the Tigers 42.4 to 39.7 percent from the floor and outrebounded them 39-35. Campbellsville entered shooting 52.7 percent for the season, scoring an NAIA-best 99.3 points per game and outrebounding opponents by 6.5.
     
XULA will play 21st-ranked Cumberlands (12-2) at 4 p.m. EST Sunday in this event. Cumberlands defeated Freed-Hardeman in the second game.

Ed Cassiere, Assistant Athletics Director for Communications
Department of Athletics & Recreation
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 
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