Blue Jays lose 60-57 to Principia on half-court heartbreaker

Principia’s Jake Kampf had nothing to lose Tuesday night with the score tied at 57 in the final seconds at Westminster, so he threw up a shot from half court.

Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, the shot went in and gave Westminster its fifth straight loss, 60-57, a defeat in what was the team’s first home game since Nov. 7 — where the Blue Jays lost to Grinnell 108-107 after a free throw was made in the final seconds.

Principia (5-5, 2-0 SLIAC) shot 44.4 percent from 3-point territory and had made seven before Kampf’s half-court heave. Westminster (4-10, 0-3 SLIAC) made 23.1 percent of its shots from deep. The Blue Jays led 25-23 after one half but struggled to hold off the Panthers in a game that featured 16 ties and 24 lead changes.

Jaxon Althaus led Westminster with a team-high 16 points and missed a double-double by one rebound while Landon Harrison added 14 points. The Blue Jay bench contributed 19 points, with Ben Eberlin leading the way with eight points and eight rebounds.

Principia had four score in double figures, including Kampf’s 10, and were led by Clark Davidson’s 14 points.

Westminster fell behind 5-0 before taking the lead after a 12-0 run about seven minutes through the first half. Kampf and AJ Byrd hit 3-pointers to give Principia its first lead at 21-19 with less then five minutes left. Eberlin gave the Blue Jays the advantage heading into halftime after an offensive putback.

Principia had a small lead for most of the second half until about the four-minute mark, when an Ethan Thompson steal led to a Harrison layup and a block by Devonte Hubbard turned into a basket by him at the other end, making it 54-51.

The Blue Jays had the lead at 57-56 with 1:27 left in the second half after Thompson hit a 3-pointer coming out of a Westminster 30-second timeout. Hubbard fouled Byrd with 11 seconds to go, leading to Byrd missing the first and hitting the second free throw. Althaus’ next attempt from deep was no good, and Kampf had just enough time to secure the rebound and beat the buzzer.

Westminster will play at Greenville (1-14, 0-4 SLIAC) at 7:30 p.m. today to see who can end its losing streak and win its first St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game. The Panthers have lost their previous 10 games, averaging 116.3 points per game in those losses while allowing 137.2 points per game.