CEDARVILLE, Ohio - Houghton banked in a 50-foot desperation heave at the buzzer to cap off a major American Mideast Conference stunner of NAIA Division II #12 Cedarville, 78-76, in the Callan Athletic Center.

Unfortunately for the Yellow Jackets, it was their second end-of-game meltdown in a span of five days. This one arguably was worse than the 65-62 setback suffered at Ohio Dominican earlier in the week mainly because it occurred in league play.

Cedarville recovered from a one-point halftime deficit to hold what should have been a comfortable 66-54 lead with 4:55 left. It was still a six-point margin with less than a minute to go.

However, the Jackets made just 5-of-13 free throws coming down the stretch including two misfires with 4.6 seconds remaining. The Highlanders grabbed the rebound with no timeouts at their disposal and got the three-point prayer as time expired.

Chris Beals tallied 23 points for Cedarville, 10-7 overall and 2-2 AMC. Ricardo Alliman had 17 points and 10 boards while Matt Harner chipped in 13 points. Houghton improves to 8-9 and 3-4 AMC.

All the pre-game numbers gave no indication of the outcome. Houghton was 1-6 on the road while the Jackets were 7-0 at home. The Highlanders, who were averaging just 52 points per game in their last seven outings, matched their season-high for points scored. [STATS]