Faulkner battled through early self-inflicted wounds to give itself a chance against Bethel in the SSAC Tournament Thursday night before falling 68-67. 

The Eagles knifed a six-point Bethel lead all the way down to two when the game started to unravel. Nate Bradley (JR/Concord, N.Y.) made the front end of a one-and-one with to cut the score to 56-55 with 5:52 to play. The officials blew the whistle and called a double foul on Adnan Halilovic (SR/Mali Zvornik, Serbia) and Cayden Edmondson. According to personnel at the scorer's table, the head official claimed to have called the foul by accident. Nonetheless, the call stood, sending Halilovic to the bench with his fifth foul. Bradley missed the back end of the one-and-one while Edmondson was allowed to shoot two free throws as a result of the double foul. Faulkner got no free throw attempts off the double foul, leaving Bethel up 57-55. 

With 4:41 to play, C.J. Jones (JR/Port Richey, Fla.) incurred an offensive foul call, resulting in his fifth personal. Just 17 seconds later, Milan Skundric (JR/Negotin, Serbia) picked up his fifth foul. In the span of 88 seconds, the Eagles lost three of their five starters. 

Yet, Faulkner took the lead one more time when Bradley dropped a shot with 4:01 to play to put the Eagles up 58-57. Isaac Edmondson erased that deficit 16 seconds later when he made a pair of free throws. The Wildcats ran the lead all the way up to seven with 24 seconds left before Faulkner mounted a late surge. 

Bradley made two free throws with 19 seconds left before Garrett Sanderson (SO/Montgomery, Ala.) drilled a three with 12 seconds to play. After Cayden Edmondson hit a free throw to put his team up four with 10 seconds to go, Bradley hit a triple with 0.6 left on the clock to set the final margin. 

The frenetic sequence following the game's last media timeout came despite Faulkner going cold from the field in the first half. The Eagles went a stretch eight minutes without a field goal in the first half. Still, Faulkner dominated the final 5:06 of the period with an 18-7 run to take a 32-29 lead into halftime. 

Faulkner checked the defensive boxes, holding Bethel to 30.6 percent shooting from the floor and 13.3 percent from beyond the arc. The Wildcats dominated the glass, pulling 56 rebounds against Faulkner's 43. Bethel also pulled 25 offensive rebounds to set up 13 second chance points.

Rene Scott (JR/Mobile, Ala.) paced the Eagles with 14 points while Jones had 13. Sanderson chipped in 12. Bradley and Skundric had 11 apiece.

Faulkner wraps its season at 19-12 overall.