EDMOND, OKLA. — All night Tim Niles had an answer.
Every time Emporia State needed a basket on Monday night at Central Oklahoma, Niles delivered, mostly with step-back 3-pointers. Distance didn’t matter. Pressure didn’t matter. He made all eight of his 3-point shots and scored a career-high 45 points.
“I almost felt like the ball was part of me,” Niles said.
Until the final seconds.
On the final possession in double overtime with 10.1 seconds left and ESU trailing by two, Niles dribbled down to the right wing and thought the defender was on his heels. When Niles went up to shoot, he had no space and had to give up the ball to Dustin Andrews.
Andrews hesitated and was stripped at the buzzer, and Central Oklahoma escaped with a 116-114 win.
“I shouldn’t have picked up my dribble,” Niles said, “but I was more thinking about winning the game than tying the game and going to another overtime. Maybe that was my fault. I should have kept my dribble for an extra second considering how much time was left on the clock.”
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