Cedarville boxscore in PDF

Playing in his homestate and near his hometown, Ohio-native Max Mischkulnig recorded a career-high 18 points but Cedarville escaped with a 62-61 victory when Armon Provo's 3-pointer at the buzzer bounced and rimmed out.

Holding a 29-28 lead, the Saints closed the first half on an 8-2 run to surge to a 37-30 lead at halftime. Evan Booker grabbed a rebound and his stick back put the Saints up by three. Provo drained a 3-pointer on Maryville's next trip. After Cedarville made two free throws but Booker drained a trey for a 37-30 Saints lead after 20 minutes.

The Maryville margin stood at 39-33 before Mischkulnig scored inside for a 41-33 advantage. The Yellow Jackets scored on their next trip before Saikou Jallow converted a layup to restore an eight-point lead. Josh Montague tracked down a defensive rebound and later scored for the biggest lead of the night at 45-35.

The Yellow Jackets used 3-point shooting to rally and eventually tied the game at 52-52. Trae Pemberton put the Saints back ahead with two free throws and a 54-52 advantage. Cedarville took its first lead of the second half at the 7:16 mark with another 3-pointer and a 55-54 count. Trailing 56-54,, Provo tied the game and his 3-pointer gave the Saints a 59-56 lead with four minutes to play. Cedarville scored on a basket inside but Mischkulnig answered with his own layup to restore a 61-58 edge with 2:03 to play. 

Leighton Smith scored with 37 seconds left to pull Cedarville to within on at 61-60. The Saints had a chance to extend the lead but missed the front end of a one and one with 29 ticks left. Smith converted again to give the Yellow Jackets a 62-61 lead with 18.6 seconds to play. On the final play of the game, Provo's 3-pointer bounced up and just rimmed out what would have been the game-winning basket.

Mischkulnig hit 8-of-13 shots from the field and added six rebounds to lead the Saints (4-4). Provo added 11 points and hit three 3-pointers and also grabbed six boards. Austin Pickett led Cedarville (3-8) with 14 points. The Saints, who had shot at least 50 percent from the field in three straight games, managed just a .429 mark.

Maryville is back in action Saturday, Dec. 20, when it hosts Westminster for a 3 p.m. game in Moloney Arena.