CLARKSBURG – Bizarre. Frustrating. Disappointing.

All appropriate words to describe the outcome for the Buckhannon-Upshur Buccaneers in their road contest with the Robert C. Byrd Eagles Friday night in Clarksburg.

The Bucs lost a 53-51 verdict in overtime after leading by 10 at the break and eight points heading into the fourth quarter.

In a game where neither B-U head coach Travis Foster nor Robert C. Byrd head coach Basil Lucas seemed pleased with the officiating, the bizarre of the contest happened with the Bucs holding a 44-42 lead with 95 seconds remaining in the game.

B-U’s Sterlin Thropp was fouled on a lay-up attempt followed by Foster picking up a technical foul from the bench.

Robert C. Byrd’s Charles Hawkins made both technical free throws to seemingly tie the game at 44-44, but the officials made the mistake of having Hawkins take the free throws before Thropp took his.

So the points came off the board for the Eagles and officials let Thropp take his two free throws in which he made one of two at the line. With Hawkins making one of two at the line on his second go-around of shooting the technical fouls, that left the Bucs up 45-43, and the whole ordeal slowed the pace of the game as it took several minutes to straighten the mistake out.

The Bucs still led by two, at 48-46, after a pair of free throws by Mason Hyre, but Robert C. Byrd’s Lletyon Wolfe tied the game with a lay-up with six seconds left.

Zach Calef-Boring was able to get a just inside half court shot off at the buzzer for B-U but it missed its mark forcing the contest into an overtime period.

The frustrating part for Foster and his Bucs is how they allowed the Eagles to get back into the game and that was going just 9-for-17 at the line in the fourth quarter. They ended the game 15 of 27 at the line for 55.6 percent.

“The game should have never made it to overtime,” remarked a disappointed Foster after the game. “If we cared as much about making our free throws and understanding the offense and managing the game better, we might be unbeaten. Then we have to fight other things on the court but it is what it is. The game got totally out sync. Nobody knew what was going on at times.”

The Bucs managed just three points in the overtime session.

Buckhannon-Upshur was down 52-50 when Hyre was fouled with three seconds remaining in the overtime period. He made his first free throw but the second one painstakingly bounced off the rim and Robert C. Byrd’s Nathaniel Junkins grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 0.5 seconds remaining. He made one of two at the line to account for the final score.

The Bucs were without leading scorer Harrison Walker for the game who is still out with an injury.

“We are a lot better than what we are showing right now,” stated Foster. “When we get healthy the rest of the teams on our schedule had better watch out because we are going to bring it. We are better than this right now.”

Down 11-10 late in the first quarter, Lamar Hurst made a pair of free throws and Calef-Boring drained a three-pointer right before the clock expired to give the Bucs a 15-11 lead.

The B-U defense limited the Eagles to just five points in the second quarter and ended the first half on a 7-0 run for a 10-point lead at the break, at 26-16.

The Eagles closed the gap down to eight, at 35-27 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Bucs were up 40-32 with 4:11 remaining in the game after a Calef-Boring lay-up but the Eagles went on a 6-0 run to make it a 40-38 contest with 3:30 left to play.

B-U led 46-43 with 51 seconds remaining but Quinten Cooley hit a three-pointer tying the game at 46-46 for the Eagles before Hyre gave the lead back to B-U with his pair of free throws.

Hurst led the Bucs with 16 points while Thropp added 11 and Calef-Boring and Hyre 10 each.

Hurst had a double-double adding 10 rebounds to his 16 points while Hyre just missed out on a double-double with eight rebounds.

Hawkins led Robert C. Byrd with 18 points, who evened their overall record to 4-4 and 2-4 in the Big 10 Conference.

The Bucs dropped to 6-5 overall and 4-2 in the Big 10.

B-U will be back in action Tuesday at No. 2 Parkersburg South. Game will tip at 7:30 p.m.