The ASUN’s first men’s basketball championship in Jacksonville since 2021, and the first since the conference made the First Coast its headquarters in 2025, ended with a rousing instant classic.
There was an individual scoring battle waged between two seniors, two tournament records broken and one exhausted winner: Third-seeded Queens University, in its first year of eligibility for the NCAA Tournament since entering the ASUN from Division II four years ago.
The Royals survived over No. 1 seed Central Arkansas 98-93 in overtime on March 8 at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in a game that went from a downright sedate pace in the first half to a furious pitched battle in the final 25 minutes that showcased the talents of 6-foot-2 guard Chris Ashby of Queens and 6-3 guard Camren Hunter of Central Arkansas, the ASUN’s Player of the Year.
Ashby drained a tournament-record 10 3-pointers in 19 attempts and scored 34 points and Hunter dropped in a record 49 points, including his team’s last 20 over the final 3:10 when he brought the Bears back from a 73-62 deficit to force an 82-82 tie.
But Ashby scored seven points in overtime, including the first five, and Queens (20-13) never trailed in the extra period.
Ashby, Hunter broke records held by Stetson players
Ashby broke the previous record of nine 3-pointers by Zack Johnson of Stetson vs. Lipscomb on March 4, 2018, and Hunter broke Jalen Blackmon’s record of 43 for Stetson against Austin Peay on March 10, 2024.
Queens will now wait until March 15 to find out its NCAA destination. Central Arkansas (22-12) may get an NIT bid but coach John Shulman said the team was too gutted to think of anything else but the pain the loss inflicted.
“I’m emotional because it hurts really bad,” said Shulman, fighting tears in the post-game news conference. “I thought we could pull a rabbit out of a hat. We almost did. Our kids are exhausted, but what they did for UCA and what they did for Conway [Ark.] and what they did for our program … that’s why it hurts.”
Camren Hunter ‘didn’t want to go away’
Both coaches groped for the words to describe Hunter’s performance.
“His heart is too big for the locker room,” Shulman said.
“I thought we had him put away,” said Queens coach Grant Leonard of Hunter, who shot 17 of 30 from the floor and 8 of 12 from beyond the 3-point arc, scoring 41 of his points in the second half and the overtime period. “He just didn’t want to go away.”
The first half had offered no indication of the frantic pace of what was to come. Ashby had nine points and Hunter eight before the break and it appeared both teams were content with a deliberate pace, especially since shots were hard to make: Queens made only 38 percent in the first half and UCA 43 percent.
This, from the conference scoring leader (Queens, at 84.9 points per game) and third-highest scoring team (Central Arkansas at 80.9). In addition, the Bears beat the Royals earlier this season 100-90, one of the two victories they had over Queens this season.
Queens made the first move in the second half, thanks to Ashby. He connected on four 3-pointers in the first 9:44 to erase a 34-30 Central Arkansas halftime lead and then hit two more on successive possessions to give the Royals their double-digit lead with under four minutes to play.
The best was yet to come.
Camren Hunter, UCA’s press brought the Bears back
Hunter made his move with a 3-pointer with 3:10 remaining. From then on, it was a one-man show as he scored every point for his team over the rest of regulation. Central Arkansas’s press was also effective, forcing four turnovers in the final three minutes.
Queens still looked to have the game in hand with a 79-72 lead with 42 seconds left. But Hunter made all three free throws when he was fouled on a shot beyond the arc, then hit a 3-pointer after teammate Luke Moore made a steal off the press and fed him the ball.
Hunter swapped a pair of free throws with Yoav Berman of Queens, Jordan Watford made one of two free throws for the Royal with 12 seconds left to give Queens an 82-80 lead and Hunter, given an opening by a defense suddenly conscious of his outside shooting, took it for a layup with two seconds left for overtime.
Queens coach urged his team to attack
Leonard had one message for his team during the break between regulation and overtime: stay aggressive.
“We kind of took our foot off the pedal the last four minutes, and I told them, ‘let’s put it back down,’” he said. “Let’s start attacking again.”
Ashby was fouled just into overtime and hit both free throws, then followed a Hunter turnover with his 3-pointer that broke the conference record. Hunter then lost his dribble trying to post low, and got tied up for a jump ball, with the possession arrow in Queens’ favor.
Avantae Parker broke inside for a dunk and an 89-82 lead and while the Bears cut the margin to three points twice, they never had the ball with a chance to tie the game.
Hunter hit his last 3 points on a shot at the buzzer.
“Queens is pretty physical,” said Hunter. “I just took what they gave me.”
Stats aside, it wasn’t a one-man show for the two teams. Warford scored 19 off the bench for the Royals, hitting 7 of 9 shots and Nasir Mann of Gainesville had 14 points and nine rebounds.
Ty Robinson added 16 points for the Bears and Javion Guy-King had 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Queens beats UCA in OT for ASUN title despite Camren Hunter’s 49 points