It was not a game for the timid. Missouri Southern’s men’s basketball team gave the University of Central Missouri all it could handle, but came up just short in a 77-76 loss yesterday in the first round of the MIAA Championship Tournament.With 1:07 left in the second half it looked to be over.But a jumper by DaRell Crittendon and a layup by Jason Adams within 45 seconds sent the game into overtime. If the last seconds of regulation were heart stopping, the last seconds of the extra frame were heart breaking. In overtime, Southern trailed 77-73 with just 14 seconds remaining. A three-point bucket by Skyler Bowlin cut the lead to one and after two missed free throws by UCM, the Lions had seven seconds to get a bucket. Mariun Price’s layup attempt with one second left was blocked.”I am extremely proud of our kids,” said Lions’ Head Coach Robert Corn. “I think Central Mo is an excellent basketball team. Obviously that was a heck of a college basketball game. You’re not going to find a better college basketball game than what you just witnessed.”Corn praised his team for its refusal to give up when the score and the clock were against them both at the end of regulation and at the end of overtime.”I thought that a lesser team would have quit down four at the end of regulation,” he said. “But they found a way to put it into overtime.”A lesser team would have quit in overtime when it looked like we were dead in the water. But they came back and found a way to maybe win the basketball game.”Price led Lion scorers with 18 points. He was joined in double figures by Vincent Ateba with 15 points and Crittendon with 13 points.