EPHRAIM, Utah (February 20, 2020) -- League leading and nationally ranked Salt Lake C.C. ended the Snow College men's basketball team's five-game win streak on Thursday, defeating the Badgers, 77-76, in a game that came down to the final buzzer. 

Freshman Nate Duckworth drove the middle of the lane and hit a five-foot, one-handed floater with 13.8 seconds remaining in the game to give the Badgers a 76-75 lead. Duckworth was fouled on the play, but missed the and-one attempt that would have given Snow College a two-point lead. The Bruins grabbed the rebound on the missed free throw and ran the court to score a layup with 7.3 seconds remaining. Now trailing, 77-76, the Badgers advanced the ball past half court then called a timeout to set up the final play with 4.9 seconds remaining. Darrian Nebeker took the inbounds pass, drove the lane and looked to pass to Brayden Johnson, but the pass sailed out of bounds, ending the Badgers' hopes of an upset of the eighth-ranked team in the nation. 

"We learned that we can play with these guys," Snow College head coach Rob Nielson said. "Hopefully we'll have the opportunity to see them one more time next week at the conference tournament. We have a lot of work ahead of us before that, but our kids are confident and we learned a lot of things tonight. We know we can battle with them."

Brantzen Blackner hit a three-pointer with 12:47 remaining in the game to give Snow a 64-54 lead; however, the Bruins went on an 8-0 run over the next three minutes to trim the Badger lead to 64-62.

"We had a 10-point lead there in the second half and didn't do a good job defensively," Nielson said. "We needed our defense to step up and help build on that lead, but we weren't able to do that."

A total of five Badgers scored in double figures against the Bruins, led by Blackner who was credited with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field. Blackner hit a team-leading five three-pointers in the game. Nebeker and Tredym Christensen were each credited with 14 points each, Duckworth added 12 points, and Trey Farrer chalked up 10 points, along with six rebounds. Farrer also found himself in foul trouble and picked up his fifth foul late in the second half. 

The Badgers will close out the regular season on Saturday at Colorado Northwestern, and will then prepare to take on the No. 3 seed Southern Idaho on Friday, February 28 in the first round of the Scenic West Athletic Conference Tournament in Twin Falls, Idaho.