Tuesday night was far too familiar to the Jefferson City Jays.
For the second time in three games, the Jays coughed up a double-digit lead in the second half as they fell 76-68 to Rolla in overtime at Fleming Fieldhouse.
Kamari Balton scored six points in less than a minute early in the fourth quarter to push the lead to 58-48 with 5:48 remaining. But the Jays only scored 10 the rest of the way, including three in overtime.
The Bulldogs took notes from Pacific, applying full-court pressure to the Jays.
"Careless is probably the best word to describe the way we handle the ball when we see pressure, and it has cost us several games this year," Jays coach Blair Thompson said. "It'll continue to do that until we can figure it out."
Pacific used full-court pressure to come back from 19 down to beat Jefferson City (6-10) on Jan. 12.
Jefferson City got around the Rolla defense a couple times, including Garrett Parker capitalizing with an easy layup for a 60-52 lead with 5:03 left.
Rolla then went on a 9-1 run to tie the game at 61 with 3:17 left.
"In the end when we need some big time possessions we settled for less than good shots," Thompson said.
Zac Burns, who tied for a team-high 17 points for Rolla, knocked down a jumper with 1:31 remaining to tie it at 65.
The Jays decided to hold for the final shot, and they ended up with two chances to win it.
Balton missed a long jumper and Hudson Nilges came away with a loose ball with :03 on the clock.
Balton got a 3 off this time, but was rejected by the defender to send the game to overtime.
"I'd like to see us attack harder in that situation, we settled for jump shots," Thompson said. "On the first attempt we settled for a jump shot and then on the second we probably didn't have enough time to get to the rim."
Jefferson City failed to find the bottom of the net in overtime until Brennan Jeffries made a 3 with :16 on the clock. The Jays were 0-of-5 in the extra period before that.
Along with an adjustment on defense, Rolla began to control the boards in the second half.
Jefferson City had a 16-9 advantage on the glass in the first half and the Bulldogs finished with a 32-24 edge in rebounds.
"We played small for a big stretch," Thompson said. " We tried to get an extra ball handler in there and spread the floor out a little bit, making it hard for them to trap. Theoretically I like to do that, it's a good idea, but again there was just our inability to handle the ball cost us again."
Jefferson City continued to experiment with its lineup and rotation off the bench.
Charlie Wehmeyer got the start, adding a 6-foot-6 body against a Rolla squad that had three starters 6-4 or taller.
Addison Brown, a 6-8 center, played some early minutes as well. But the Jays also went with a guard-heavy set for a significant time, with Rae'Quan Davis being the tallest on the floor at 6-3. In all, 10 Jays stepped on the floor.
"I'd be nice by this time of year to have a consistent rotation where guys know their roles, are getting plugged in about this time, playing this amount of minutes consistently," Thompson said. "We just haven't got the kind of consistency we're looking for out of a lot of guys so we find ourselves trying to search for who's going t show up, who's going to play defense, who's going help us rebound."
Nine players scored for the Jays, including a game-high 22 from Nilges who made 6-of-8 from 3.
"He has the ability to do that," Thompson said. " When he catches with his feet set and his hands ready, he's a high-percentage shooter. He caught the ball ready to shoot tonight."
Davis finished with 11 points and a team-high six rebounds while Balton had 10 points.
Rolla had five players score in double figures, including 17 from Brandon Cunningham, 13 fro Nick Jankem, 12 from Josh Pritchett and 10 for Blaize Klossner.
Jefferson City is back on its home floor Friday when it hosts Transportation and Law.
Rolla won the JV game 38-36 after trailing 30-20 entering the fourth quarter.
Jefferson City came away with a win in the freshman game 41-17.
Brenden Hoener and Kaidyn Johnson each had nine points to lead the Jays.