Tue, Mar 9, 2010 - [Men's Basketball]
JACKSON, Tenn. - The Freed-Hardeman Lions' season came to an unfortunate end in the TranSouth Conference championship game on Tuesday night, losing to Union (Tenn.) University, 75-65.
The Lions finish as runners-up in the conference for the second year in a row, but unlike last year will likely not receive an at-large bid to the NAIA National Tournament despite that fact. Only one conference team - No. 10 Union - appeared in the top 25 in last week's final poll.
The Bulldogs won their seventh conference title in 14 years, fighting off a second-half rally by FHU to hold on for the win.
Union jumped out early with a 17-4 run that put the Bulldogs ahead 23-11 with 9:21 left in the first half, the run ending with the first of two first-half 3-pointers by Tacuma Alexander, a 27 percent 3-point shooter entering the game.
Still trailing by 11 with 5:09 in the half, the Lions ran off six straight points - four of which came on a pair of acrobatic shots by Ken Bingham - to pull back within five before Union took a 38-31 lead into halftime.
After Zack Frey made the first basket of the second half, the Bulldogs quickly re-opened an 11 point lead with 16:05 to play.
That's when FHU made its first push toward the lead in the form of a 10-2 run that helped the Lions pull within three points after Jesse Moulton's 3-pointer.
But Union answered after a three-point play by Keith Tolliver, who came flying in over the top of three FHU players to get a stickback of a Samuel Danache miss and drew a foul in the process.
Freed-Hardeman would continue to have chances to tie the game, getting within two points on two more occasions and had an open 3-pointer while down three. The Lions, though, would never be able to tie or take the lead, missing their final 10 shots from the floor. FHU's last basket came with 4:06 to play when another Moulton 3-pointer got the Lions within two points (67-65) for the last time.
Union then made enough free throws down the stretch to expand its final margin of victory to 10 points.
Tonight's game brought a close to the careers of Zack Frey, Logan Greer and Kirtiss Brown, barring the unlikely possibility of an at-large bid to the national tournament. Frey scored 17 points in the game and finished as FHU's sixth-leading scorer with 1,872 points in his career.
Bingham led all scorers with 20 points but made just 2-of-10 from behind the arc. The Lions hit only 5-of-23 3-pointers as a team. Moulton was the only other Lion to reach double figures with 14.
Tolliver led Union with 16 points while the Bulldogs got 13 each from Greg Truvillion, Roland Banhoro and Tacuma Alexander.
