Gold Rush hold on to defeat NAIA No. 22 Wiley in overtime

NEW ORLEANS — Rayshawn Mart scored a career-high-tying 25 points Wednesday, and Xavier University of Louisiana survived subpar free-throw shooting to escape with a 72-70 men’s basketball victory in overtime against NAIA No. 22 Wiley.

The Gold Rush (7-3) won back-to-back overtime games for the first time in 22 years. It was XULA’s third consecutive victory overall.

XULA trailed 68-65 when Wiley’s Stephen Taylor made a 3-pointer at 3:06 of overtime, but the Gold Rush closed with a 7-2 run and took the lead for good on Mart’s basket at 2:19. The Gold Rush held on to win despite missing four free throws in the final 66 seconds.

“I’m not happy about the free throws,” said XULA head coach Alfred Williams, whose team was 11-of-22 from the line and 8-of-18 after halftime. “We have to get better there. But we were resilient again. I sound like a broken record, but we were resilient. We got stops when we needed them.”

XULA also got a critical offensive rebound when top player William Loyd snuck through the Wiley defense after teammate Cameron Wells went 0-of-2 from the line with 10 seconds remaining. Cameron Dumas was fouled after the rebound and made the first of two free throws for the final points. Then XULA players and fans exhaled when Wiley’s Taylan Grogan missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Mart was 10-of-14 from the floor and played all but five minutes and 15 seconds. He also had four assists, two blocks and three steals.

“We needed all 25 of Rayshawn’s points,” Williams said. “It was good to see him bounce back after a couple of tough games on the road. He plays very well at home.”

Mart this season has averaged 21.8 points in four home games and 9.7 points in six road games.

Williams used 13 players, but only seven scored. Nigel Allen scored 11 points, including 3-of-3 3-pointers, and freshman Cameron Wells had 10 points, two blocks and four steals, the last with 11 seconds remaining against Grogan with XULA leading by a point.

“Cameron Wells is so underrated,” Williams said. “He played a lot of minutes and got a huge stop for us at the end.”

Another XULA freshman, TJ Jones, produced nine points, four assists and three steals.

Grogan entered as NAIA Division I’s No. 2 scorer with 31.7 points per game. But he scored a season-low 18 points and committed 10 turnovers. Travious Grubbs had 14 points and four steals for Wiley, Jamir Cheek had 12 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals, and Devin Ellis scored 10.

XULA outshot Wiley 52.9 to 50.9 percent from the floor and outrebounded the Wildcats 30-26. The teams combined to commit 55 turnovers, 28 by Wiley. XULA had 19 steals.

XULA won at home against Wiley for the 16th consecutive time dating to 1986. The Gold Rush lead the series, which dates to the mid-1930s, 41-18. Before Wednesday, the last time XULA won in overtime in consecutive games was in February 1997, when the Gold Rush defeated then-Gulf Coast Athletic Conference opponents Mobile and Spring Hill at home.

Next for the Gold Rush will be two 6 p.m. games in Texas: Friday at Texas College in Tyler and Saturday at Huston-Tillotson in Austin.