St. Louis-Saint Louis senior guard Mike Crawford hit a running layup as time expired in double overtime to lift the Billikens to a thrilling 76-74 victory against George Mason Wednesday at Chaifetz Arena.
The Billikens improve to 7-15 overall and 3-7 in Atlantic 10 Conference play. George Mason dips to 14-8 and 4-5 in the league. The Billikens completed the season sweep against the Patriots, as SLU won in Fairfax earlier this season.
Crawford finished with a career-high 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field, 4-of-7 from 3-point range and 4-of-4 from the stripe. He also dished out six assists and grabbed six rebounds.
It was the Billikens’ first win at the buzzer in Chaifetz Arena history, and their first since Mike McCall Jr.’s game-winning tip-in as time expired at Valparaiso in 2013.
Fellow senior Reggie Agbeko scored 17 points and added seven rebounds, while junior guard Davell Roby scored 12 points.
The Billikens played just six players all night in a wild game that saw 13 ties and 18 lead changes.
SLU was down by five with three minutes left in the second overtime, but Crawford would score nine of the Billikens’ next 11 points, including the game-winning bucket as time expired.
Crawford clutch 3-pointer with a minute left tied the game, and Agbeko converted a drive in the paint with less than 30 seconds remaining to put SLU up by two. George Mason converted two free throws to tie the score with 11 seconds left to set up Crawford’s heroics.
Mason led by eight points with 5:31 left in the first half, the largest lead for any team on the night, but the Billikens clawed back to send the game into halftime tied 27-all.
SLU’s largest lead came at the 7:33 mark of the second half when it led by five, but Mason rallied back and the game went into overtime with the score knotted at 59-59.
George Mason had a chance to win it at the end of the first overtime, but Otis Livingston’s 3-pointer as time winded down did not fall after bouncing off the rim, off the backboard, and off the rim again.\
