MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The Brevard College men's basketball team (4-13, 3-7 USAS) pulled out a close victory, 83-81, over the Huntingdon College Hawks (9-8, 5-5 USAS) on Friday evening in Montgomery, Alabama.
Junior forward Cannon Lamb scored 26 points, just one point shy from his career-high, on 10-of-18 shooting from the field with three made 3-pointers. Senior forward Levi Lamb stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, three boards, three assists, and two blocks, while Joshua Wilson rejected a game-high four shots. Senior guard Qadhafi Turner scored 12 points off the bench on a perfect 3-of-3 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.
Huntingdon's Damien Madison scored a game-high 33 points on nine made field goals and an impressive 13-of-15 from the free-throw line.
After both sides battled to a 12-12 tie with 11:26 left in the first half, BC established a five-point, 17-12 advantage after a Messiah Pankey 3-pointer and a Levi Lamb layup with 10:17 left to play before intermission. Brevard would hold the lead from that point on in the first half, extending its lead to as many as 11 points at 35-24 when Cannon Lamb hit a 3-pointer at the 1:36 mark in the first half. BC maintained an eight-point, 39-31 advantage at the halftime intermission.
Brevard's double-digit advantage of 62-51 with 9:44 left to play dwindled down with a 6-0 run by the Hawks that cut BC's advantage to five points at 62-57 with 8:47 left to play. Huntingdon later used an 11-3 scoring stretch to tie the contest at 71 points apiece with 3:07 remaining in the game. BC's senior trio of Demari Hopper, Levi Lamb, and Turner scored the next six points for Brevard to give the Tornados a 77-73 advantage with 47 seconds left to play. Wilson hit a free throw before Turner drained a pair of free throws to extend BC's advantage to seven points at 80-73 with just 16 seconds left in the contest.
Huntingdon's Madison hit an and-one layup to cut BC's lead to four points, 80-76, however, Turner hit another pair of free throws to give BC a six-point cushion, 82-76, with 10 seconds left to play. Madison drilled a 3-pointer with five seconds remaining to cut Brevard's lead to three points, but Cannon Lamb hit the front end of his two free throws to seal BC's victory, 83-81.
The Tornados were able to hit 30-of-61 shots from the field for a 49.1% average compared to Huntingdon's 39.4% clip. BC hit 9-of-20 3-pointers, while the Hawks hit only 4-of-17 long-range attempts.
BC pulled out the victory despite being out-rebounded 52-27 by the host Hawks. The Tornados exemplified fantastic ball movement by recording 15 assists to Huntingdon's two. Brevard took advantage of the Hawks' 16 turnovers and turned them into 21 points-off-turnovers, while the Tornados added 33 pounds from their bench.
Brevard will return to action tomorrow when the Tornados travel to LaGrange, Georgia to face off against LaGrange College (3-13, 2-7 USAS) at 5 p.m.
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