Caron's Last-Second Block Preserves Victory for Men's Basketball

SAN ANTONIO — St. Mary's University Men's Basketball senior Tyler Caron blocked quite possibly the biggest shot of his career with less than a second remaining to preserve a 77-75 victory over Oklahoma Christian on Saturday evening.
 
Caron, from Longview, Texas, also recorded his first double-double of the season and fourth of his career in helping the Rattlers win their third-straight and improve to .500 on the year (8-8, 4-6 Lone Star Conference). Caron and fellow senior Lachlan Bofinger (Sydney, Australia) each scored 12 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, blocked a shot and collected two assists.
 
Franklin Agu (London, England) and Davion Coleman (Houston) each scored 16 to lead the Rattlers, while Jalon Johnson (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) recorded seven assists for the second-straight contest.
 
With 0:45 remaining in the game, the Eagles (8-9, 5-6 Lone Star) cut their deficit to two, 77-75, when Javon Grant made the first free throw on a two shot foul. He missed the second and the Eagles missed the putback three seconds later. After the teams traded empty possessions, OC had a great look at the basket but the tying basket was waved off with 1.3 seconds left when the Eagles called a timeout from the bench. On the ensuing inbounds play after the timeout, Caron blocked the layup by Quinton Johnson II as time expired for the win.
 
Hunter Staten led the game with 19 points and two blocked shots, while Moun'tae Edmundson (18), Johnson (12) and Grant (10) all scored in double digits for OC.
 
Both teams grabbed 38 rebounds in the game, turned the ball over 20 times and blocked three shots. The difference came at the lines, where the Rattlers made eight triples and 11 free throws while the Eagles were only 3-for-16 from downtown but sank 18 at the charity stripe.
 
St. Mary's heads back out on the road next week, traveling to Angelo State for a Thursday night tilt and then to UT Permian Basin for a Saturday afternoon affair. The Rams lost 90-76 at Cameron, while the Falcons won 62-57 at Midwestern State on Saturday.
 
NEWS & NOTES

• For the first time this season, the Rattlers had two players record double-doubles in the same contest as both Lachlan Bofinger and Tyler Caron scored 12 and collected 10 rebounds. The last time two Rattlers had 10 or more in two categories was Nov. 19, 2022 against Huston-Tillotson when Edward Manuel had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Emmanuel Ewuzie had 16 points and 14 rebounds.
• The Rattlers continued to get good production from the players coming off the bench as the five of them scored 23 points and recorded eight rebounds. StMU entered the week with the best bench scoring in the Lone Star Conference at 31.86 per game.
• The three-game winning streak is the longest this season for the Rattlers. On two other occasions StMU had won back-to-back contests.
• The 13 steals for the Rattlers marks the seventh time this year and the third-straight game they have had double digits in thefts.