KINGSPORT, Tenn. -- The men's basketball program at Shawnee State scored what is easily its biggest win of the 2025 season Sunday -- as the Bears took a 12-point first half advantage over No. 13 Georgetown (Ky.) and withstood a Georgetown comeback to force overtime by outscoring the Tigers 12-2 over the first 3:04 of the lone overtime period to score a big 84-76 win to conclude its contests on the second day of 'The Show' Sunday afternoon in a nonconference matchup that was held at the MeadowView Conference Resort & Convention Center in Kingsport, Tenn.
  Shawnee State, who again shot out to a fast start as has been the norm all season, took three separate 12-point advantages (24-12, 26-14 and 30-18) in the first half as the Bears shot an even 50 percent (13-of-26) in the opening 20-minute stanza alone -- all while giving Georgetown fits on the opposite end of the floor. At one point, the Tigers made just three of their first 20 shots from the field, and finished the first half just 7-of-28 (25 percent) from the field in all.

Jason Steele and Kiante Williams helped Shawnee State claim the early lead -- as the duo combined to score nine of SSU's first 11 points to help the Bears take an 11-7 lead with 14:02 to play in the first half.

Neither team put up much in the way of points over the following four minutes, but the Bears broke its point drought with a 12-2 point spurt over a span of 5:05 in the opening half, giving Shawnee State its first 12-point advantage of the first 20 minute stanza, 24-12, with 5:13 to play in the frame. Ahmadou Aw scored six consecutive points during that run to help the Bears take the sizeable lead, a gap that the Bears maintained all the way to the halftime break, when SSU led by a 32-24 count.

With Shawnee State's advantage cut down to a 37-31 margin with 15:50 to play, the Bears responded with a critical 7-0 run to assume its largest lead of the game, 44-31, with 13:54 to go as El Sieger and Kiante Williams combined for nine straight Shawnee State points.

The remainder of the contest saw the affair bounce back and fourth with one radical spurt after another.
 
Showing why it's considered to be the No. 13-ranked unit in the NAIA, Georgetown went on a 20-8 run to close the Shawnee State lead down to one, 52-51, with 7:22 to play in the contest -- but from there, the Bears rode the talented scoring of Shawnee State senior off-guard El Sieger.

From the 6:37 to 2:42 marks of the second half, Sieger went on an absolute scoring binge, willing the Bears back to a five-point lead by scoring 11 of Shawnee State's next 13 points over a span of 3:55 to give the Bears a 64-59 lead.

Sieger, the high-scorer in the contest, put up an amazing 22-point outburst despite only playing 19 minutes. Sieger went 7-of-9 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free throw line in a Vinnie Johnson-esque scoring performance.
 
Georgetown, however, didn't relent.

Over the final 2:41 of regulation, Shawnee State was held without a bucket by the Tigers, leading to a 7-2 Georgetown push that was capped off by Bubba Leavell's three-pointer from the right wing with 25 seconds to play, tying the score at 66 apiece and sending the contest to overtime.

The Bears, however, weren't to be denied.

Getting the overtime period off to an excellent start with early buckets from Aw and Jareon Mayo, Sieger and Tyreon Payne took things over from there as the duo combined to score each of Shawnee State's last 14 points in the eight-point win, with the pair helping the Bears shoot 7-of-12 (58.3 percent) in the overtime session en route to the victory. Payne, in particular, was relentless over the last five minutes, tallying 10 points and four rebounds in the overtime canto en route to finishing with 16 points, 11 rebounds and three assists without turning the basketball over a single time in 29 minutes of game action.
Along with Sieger and Payne, Kiante Williams finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and two steals on 5-of-10 shooting from the field while Ahmadou Aw, who played a team-high 40 minutes in the contest, notched 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor and a 2-of-4 clip from three-point range. Jareon Mayo, along with Aw, continues to rise his level of play on a game-by-game basis, as his 11 points, nine rebounds, two blocks and two steals suggest.

Jason Steele (six points, four rebounds, two assists), Rheyce DeBoard (four points) and Daniel Rosenber (four rebounds) also played significant minutes in Shawnee State's eight-point triumph.

Shawnee State will get six days of rest before returning to action Saturday, Dec. 6 with a road contest at Lindsey Wilson, Ky. (7-2). Game time is set for 3 p.m. at Biggers Sports Center in Columbia, Ky.

For more information on the Shawnee State men's basketball program, visit Shawnee State men's basketball on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/ssuhoops/, on X at https://x.com/ShawneeStateMBB, or at https://ssubears.com/sports/mens-basketball.