It's always difficult to defeat one team three times in a season and Friday it was overtime difficult but Incarnate Word did advance to the finals of the Heartland Conference championship tournament with a hard-fought decision over Dallas Baptist.
These two played twice in the regular season with UIW (22-6) winning both, the most recent just six days ago on a buzzer-beating three-point shot by Eric Stewart. Then on Friday top-seeded Cardinals and the fourth-seeded Patriots (18-11) got to do it again. This time UIW got a layup attempt at the regulation horn but no foul was called an extra five minutes went on the scoreboard clock.
Dallas Baptist controlled the tip and just 15 seconds in Jared Whitmire made a three followed a minute later by a layup from Jordan McGowan and DBU was out in front by five at 93-88 with 3:43 remaining.
The Cardinals refused to break and when Deleon Hines made a layup off a steal by Kelcey Solomon UIW was on top 97-96 with 1:59 to go. Dallas Baptist managed a tie at 98-98 with 1:39 remaining but Chris Johnson got yet another layup and Incarnate Word would not trail or be tied again.
"We knew it would be close," UIW Coach Ken Burmeister said after the game. "They have good balance and they have good shooters plus we got a little stagnant there at the end. But we dominated the boards and Chris Johnson had some big tip-ins. Also Shaun Umeh had some big plays down at the end."
In overtime Umeh grabbed an offensive rebound and 10 seconds later he made a three drawing the Cardinals to within one point at 96-95 with 2:38 on the clock. At 1:06 he made a layup off his own midcourt steal giving the Cardinals a four-point advantage, 102-98 with 1:04 to go.
An inordinate amount of fouls were assessed, 54, resulting in Dallas Baptist being 27-35 at the stripe with UIW 24 of 32. The Cardinals lost three players, including big men Tracy Robinson and Tamas Cseh along with guard Stewart via five fouls while the Patriots saw Armie Lewis disqualified. Also UIW was tagged with a pair of technical fouls.
Nonetheless, reigning and three-time Heartland player of the year Pierce Caldwell did a number on the Patriots with his game-high 32 points including being 6-14 from beyond the arc. Umeh posted 21 points while the other double-figures came from Johnson (17), Hines (13), and Robinson (10).
The Cardinals thoroughly controlled the backboards by 42-28 led by Johnson's 12 giving him fourth double-double of the season.
Dallas Baptist got 27 points from both Bryan Baumann and Braxton Adamson.
Incarnate Word advances to the tournament finals and awaits the winner of the second semi-final game between number two seed Newman and fourth-seed St. Mary's. The title tilt is set for 5 p.m. Saturday at St. Mary's. The ultimate winner earns the automatic bid to the NCAA Division II South Central Regional tournament.