The Aquinas men's basketball team were down by as much as 13 in the second half, but were able to mount a huge comeback over UM-Dearborn on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 20) in Dearborn, Michigan. The Saints outscored the Wolverines 38 to 12 in the last 15 minutes of the game to claim the 75-62 win.
Aquinas improves its overall record of 6-2 on the season with a 3-1 WHAC record, while UM-Dearborn now has a record of 1-5 including 1-2 in the conference.
The Saints and Wolverines battled back and forth for the first 12 minutes of the ball game that included seven lead changes as UMD led with 7:26 left in the first half. The Wolverines did not relinquish the lead for the remaining time, extending their lead to as much as 12. The Saints scored the last bucket of the half and went into the break trailing by 10.
UM-Dearborn maintained a double-digit lead for the first five minutes of the second half, leading by 13 with 15:00 remaining. Aquinas dominated the rest of the game on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor. The Saints went on an 18-0 run in the next six and a half minutes to flip the script and go up by five. After both teams exchanged buckets for the next three minutes, AQ ended the game on an 11-2 run to seal the 13-point victory over the Wolverines.
Aquinas ended up shooting 43.1% from the field on 28-56 shooting, including 3-20 from three and 16-19 from the free throw line. UM-Dearborn shot 22-64 for a 34.4% field goal percentage, while shooting 8-28 from downtown and 10-14 from the charity stripe.
Gabe Overway was the main catalyst for the Saints again while coming off the bench by securing a double-double with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Overway shot 10-19 from the field and 3-5 from the free throw line, while also pitching in three assists. Sammie Ryans (16), Jaylen Rutherford (13), and Justin Lary (12) all also scored 10 or more points for AQ. Jesse Hillis was the main distributor by racking up six assists.
Aquinas ended the game with more rebounds (42-38) and assists (18-11), while UM-Dearborn held a 7-4 advantage in steals. The Saints forced 17 Wolverine turnovers and turned the ball over 14 times themselves. AQ also led in the categories of points off turnovers (14-12), second chance points (12-9), bench points (30-15), and points in the paint (36-24) with UMD scoring more fast break points at a 13-4 clip.
Aquinas will play its last game before Thanksgiving break on Tuesday (Nov. 23) against Indiana Tech at Sturrus Center, with tip-off scheduled for 7:30 PM.
