Brevard, N.C. – In front of a packed-out and "whited out" Boshamer Gymnasium crowd, the Brevard College men’s basketball team battled the Lions of Mars Hill to the limit before ultimately falling, 70-57 on Saturday afternoon.

 

BC exploded out of the gates and jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in front of a pumped up home crowd and held a 17-12 lead at the 12:08 mark of the first half on two made foul shots from sophomore Shane Galloway.

 

Mars Hill bounced back and tied the score up at 17-17 with 11:28 to play in the opening half and then took their first lead of the game on their next offensive possession, a jumper by Jordan Skinner giving the visiting Lions the 19-17 edge. 

 

A jumper by BC’s Joseph Chilton on the Tornados next possession knotted the score at 19-19. However, it was the last tie for the remainder of the contest as the Lions would go on a 7-0 run over the next 2:30 to take the lead for good.

 

The Lions would hold off a late first half surge from the Tornados and take a 39-30 lead into the halftime break.

 

In the second half the Tornados, who shot 40.7 percent in the first half, went cold as they hit only 8-of-28 from the floor, 28.6 percent. 

 

Taking advantage of Brevard’s cold shooting, the Lions pushed their lead to double-digits and as high as 16 points on a number of occasions.

 

The Tornados would not give up and continued to play hard, cutting into the Lions lead in the final five minutes of play. However, the Lions defense stiffened up and held off the Tornados to seal the 70-57 win.

 

The Tornados were led by sophomore point guard Cody Siniard, who had a season-high 14 points, as he went 2-of-3 from long distance on the afternoon. Off the bench, Shane Galloway had 12 points, going 7-of-7 from the charity stripe. Junior Joseph Chilton had nine points and a team-high eight rebounds.

 

Mars Hill had a well-balanced scoring attack on Saturday afternoon, as four players – P.J. Gore, Josh Goble, Jamarl Glen and Jabreel Moton – all had 11 points on the day. Junior Jordan Skinner had nine points and eight rebounds off the bench for the Lions.

 

For the game the Lions shot 50.9 percent from the floor and 46.2 percent from the three-point line, while the Tornados shot 34.5 percent for the game, including only 19 percent from the three-point arc.

 

The loss drops the young Tornado squad to 3-17 on the season, while Mars Hill improved to 9-10 overall. The Tornados are 0-3 this season against their rivals from Mars Hill, N.C.

 

Coach Jones’ squad will hit the road again next Wednesday, February 6, when they travel to Hickory, N.C. to do battle with the Bears’ of Lenoir-Rhyne, who are currently atop of the South Atlantic Conference standings. The Bears defeated the Tornados back on 57-48 back on January 9 in Brevard, N.C. The tip-off is slated for 8 p.m.

 

###