Bloomsburg Rallies to beat Kutztown on Nenstiel Three-Pointer at Buzzer
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BLOOMSBURG—Ryan Nenstiel (Nuremburg/Weatherly) scored five points in the final five seconds of the game, including the game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer to lift the Bloomsburg University men's basketball team to a 72-69 win over Kutztown University Wednesday night in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division action at the Nelson Field House.
Nenstiel's game-winning shot capped a wild comeback for the Huskies in the final 30 seconds of play. The Huskies trailed 69-64 with 26 seconds left after the Golden Bears David Moyer hit a jumper to give the visitors a five-point lead.
After a Kutztown timeout, the Huskies' Andrew Jerry (Philadelphia/Olney) drove the length of the floor and hit layup and was fouled. After converting the free throw to get Bloomsburg back to within two, 69-67, with 17 seconds left. On the ensuing play, Bloomsburg's Ernest Cherry (Babonneau, St. Lucia/St. Mary's) forced a steal with Buddy Rose (Philadelphia/Mastbaum Tech) getting the lose ball. After Rose missed a shot and the ball went out of bounds, the Huskies called timeout to set up a play. Nenstiel then hit a jumper to tie the game at 69-69.
On the enusing inbounds play, Kutztown's Ty Brickus was stripped from behind by Nenstiel near midcourt. Nenstiel then took two dribbles and drained the game-winning shot as the horn sounded setting off a wild celebration.
In the early going of the game it didn't look like the Huskies would need any last second heroics to win the game. Bloomsburg took the lead from the opening moments of the game and built a six-point lead, 13-7, on a jumper by Andrew Jerry with 11:43 to play in the first half.
Later, leading by seven, 24-17at the 6:07 mark, the Huskies went on an 8-3 run to take its largest lead of the night, 32-21, with Jaren Burdine (Reading/Reading) getting four of the eight points for Bloomsburg.
Bloomsburg went into halftime with an 11-point edge and made it 14 when Nenstiel hit a three-pointer just 10 seconds into the second half. But, Kutztown rallied and slowly chipped away at the advantage. An 11-2 run, keyed by six points from Bobby Eberhart made it a 39-34 game with 16:26 left to play.
Later, a layup from Bilal Salaam brought Kutztown to within three, 49-46, with 11:31 left, then went ahead for the first time in the game, 55-54, on a jumper from Bilal Salaam with 6:36 to play.
The visitors increased their lead to four on two occasions, the last being 60-56, with 4:39 to play. But, the Huskies would not give up. Bloomsburg came back, though, with a three-pointer from Nenstiel and a three-point play from Jerry for a 64-62 Huskies' lead with 2:39 to play.
The Golden Bears regained the lead on a three-pointer from Frank Moultrie and stretched it to five, 69-64, on jumpers from Salaam and David Moyer setting up the final heroics from Nenstiel.
Nenstiel and Jerry both finished with a game-high 18 points, while Billy Bryan (Denver/Holy Name) scored 10 and had seven rebounds before fouling out for Bloomsburg. Ernest Cherry played well of the bench with five points, 10 rebounds and a steal.
Kutztown, 13-9, 4-4 in the PSAC East, got 13 points from Ben Arnold, 12 each from Eberhart and Moultrie, while Salaam and Ty Brickus each had 11.
Bloomsburg, 6-17, 2-6 in the PSAC East, will be at Cheyney on Saturday starting at 3 p.m.