Mike Riley Earns First Win at UDC With 78-77 Thriller in the Nation’s Capital

WASHINGTON, DC – In his return from a shoulder injury, senior guard Michael Terry led all scorers with 27 points, including the game-winning free-throw with one second left, to send University of the District of Columbia to its first victory under head coach Mike Riley, 78-77 vs. non-region foe Alderson Broaddus on Wednesday night at UDC Gym.

With the score knotted at 77-apiece and 5.2 seconds left to play, junior forward Lenjo Kilo inbounded the ball to Terry. The game's leading scorer split two Battler defenders just before midcourt and attacked straight at the rim, drawing a foul by Ali Bilal with just one second remaining in regulation. Terry, who was 0-for-2 at the line at that point, sank the first shot to put the Firebirds ahead, 78-77. He then missed the second free-throw, but time expired before Alderson Broaddus could even get off a desperation final heave.  

The Firebirds, who have played three straight non-conference opponents that were receiving votes for the NABC Top-25 poll at the start of the season, improved to 1-2 on the season with tonight's win. They play their first East Coast Conference game of the year vs. St. Thomas Aquinas on Saturday at 3 p.m. The Battlers, an Atlantic Region squad that competes in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, had their two-game win streak snapped as they fell to 2-2 overall.

Terry (Criminal Justice – Philadelphia, PA/Boston U) did not start, but played 30 minutes off the bench and shot 11-of-17 from the field (4-of-6 from three-point range) while also grabbing five rebounds. His backcourt mate, senior Quasim Jones (Business Management – Philadelphia, PA/Johnson CC) shot 8-of-12 from the field (2-of-3 from long-range) for 18 points and also handed out a team-high three assists. Kilo (Biology – Silver Spring, MD/Seton Hill) was very active in the paint, finishing for the third consecutive game with identical numbers of 18 points and nine rebounds. Also, senior forward Ziad Ashmawy (Economics – Cairo, Egpyt/American City College) made several key hustle plays and pitched in with 12 points and eight rebounds.

All five Alderson Broaddus starters scored in double-figures, led by Bilal's 16 points and five rebounds. Adam Kline was a force inside with 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

A back-and-forth battle early on, Alderson Broaddus used an 8-2 run to go up 13-8 with nearly seven minutes gone by. A put-back layup by Kilo at the 12:45 mark then sparked a 13-0 Firebirds run over the next three minutes that culminated in a layup by junior guard Prince Ritson (Psychology – Greenbelt, MD/Bowie St.) to put UDC up 21-13.

UDC still led 23-18 with just over four minutes left before halftime when Terry started and finished a 7-0 Firebirds surge with layups, and Jones knocked down a three-pointer in-between. With the second of those Terry layups, District of Columbia had its largest lead of the game, 30-18 with 3:18 to play in the opening half. A three-pointer by Bilal followed by a Richard Lemon (14 pts, six rebounds, six assists) layup cut the lead back down to seven, but Terry knocked down a jumper from the left elbow at the buzzer to make it 32-23 at intermission.

The Firebirds extended their lead to 11 with a pair of free-throws by Kilo 38 seconds into the second half, but a Bilal three-pointer and an and-one layup by Stuart Clark (15 points, five assists) cut the lead to five and showed that the Battlers were not going away any time soon.

Alderson Broaddus kept within striking distance for much of the second half, pulling within one at the 5:45 mark and again at the 4:08 mark on a layup by Lemon to make it 68-67. After a Terry layup at the other end, Malcom Tatum (13 points, five rebounds) connected on his only three-pointer of the day to force the game's first tie, 70-all, with 3:11 left in regulation. The Battlers would take their first lead since the 11:53 mark of the first half when Lemon made both free-throws to put AB ahead, 74-72 with 1:35 to play.

On the ensuing possession, Kilo drew a foul and earned a trip to the line where he made 1-of-2, to make it a one-point game. Ashmawy then came up with a pivotal blocked shot on defense, leading to a coast-to-coast fast-break layup by Terry (who scored 16 of his 27 in the second half) to put the Firebirds back in front, 75-74 with one minute remaining.

The Battlers used a lot of clock before Tatum drove to the basket and drew a foul in the paint by Kilo with 38 seconds showing on the clock. He made both to put Alderson Broaddus up 76-75. Fifteen seconds later, Ashmawy was fouled during a scrum for a loose ball, and he went to the line to shoot two. The fourth-year senior knocked down both to give his team a 77-76 lead with only 23 seconds left.

Once again, dribble penetration led to another foul in the paint by Kilo, resulting in two free-throws for Lemon with six seconds remaining. Lemon, who was 3-for-5 at the line at that point, clanked the first shot, but tied the score at 77 with a make on the second, leading the way for the last-second heroics by Terry.

The Firebirds out-shot the Battlers 52-percent to 45-percent from the field, including a 46-percent to 33-percent disparity in the first half. They also shot much better from three-point range, making 6-of-13 (46-percent) compared to 8-of-25 (32-percent). Where they allowed the game to get interesting was by only making 8-of-15 (53-percent) at the foul line while Alderson Broaddus made 15-of-18 (83-percent). Both teams were well-disciplined offensively, each only turning it over 11 times, but the Battlers doubled-up the Firebirds, 18-9 in assists.