BREVARD, N.C. - The Brevard College men's basketball team (9-15, 5-8 USA South) battled NC Wesleyan University (20-4, 12-1 USAS), taking the first-place Battling Bishops to overtime before ultimately falling 74-68 in a Sunday afternoon thriller at the Boshamer Gymnasium.
The Tornados honored their senior class prior to the action, as players Quincy Carter, Paris Crawford, Eli Kessinger, David Sealy, and Chancey Watson as well as senior student manager Timiah McGhee were all honored before the contest.
Junior guard LB Boyette led all Tornados offensively with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field to lead four BC double-digit scorers. Carter scored 13 points with a team-best three made 3-pointers, while Kavan Horton scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Freshman forward Jason Carnes scored 10 points on a 4-of-7 mark from the field and dished out four assists.
NC Wesleyan's Isaiah Lewis scored a game-best 22 points with 13 rebounds, while Khalid Chavis-Hinds added 16 points. Brayden Dixon added 12 points with six rebounds and three steals, while Sal Young scored nine points and grabbed 10 rebounds off the bench.
Each team was identical from the field with a 39.7% mark, but the Tornados held a convincing 10-1 advantage on 3-pointers made. BC made 80% of its free throws while NC Wesleyan struggled from the charity stripe going 11-for-23. NCW held a 48-36 rebounding margin and forced 20 Brevard turnovers that directly turned into 26 points. The Battling Bishops controlled the effort in the painted area, scoring 50 of their 74 points inside. Brevard's bench contributed 55 of its 68 points as the Tornados started an all-senior lineup to begin the matchup.
The Tornados hit five 3-pointers in the game's first seven minutes of play as BC took an early 17-10 lead following a Boyette made bucket from distance. Brevard held the lead until the 2:05 mark in the first half when Lewis tied it up with a putback layup, drawing the score to a 30-30 stalemate. However, BC's Carson Evans hit a layup to give the Tornados a two-point advantage heading into the halftime break, 32-30. Carter, Carnes, and Evans each had six points apiece as the Tornados drilled six 3-pointers in the first half of play. BC's defense held the Battling Bishops to just 34% shooting from the field and did not give up a single three-point bucket.
BC's Carter and Evans nailed consecutive 3-pointers early in the second half to force an NC Wesleyan timeout as Brevard pushed its lead up to a game-high eight points, 40-32. NC Wesleyan answered back with a 10-2 scoring run to tie the contest back up at 42-42 at the 13:55 mark.
Brevard opened back up a seven-point lead, 53-46, before the Battling Bishops strung an 11-0 run together to take a late four-point lead, 57-53, with just over four minutes left in regulation. With the Tornados down three points and 2:36 left on the clock, Brevard hit six-consecutive free throws to take a 64-61 lead with 18 seconds remaining. NCWU's Dixon hit a layup to cut the deficit back down to one point as the Batting Bishops once again fouled Brevard. BC's Horton missed the front end of two free throw attempts before sinking the second to put Brevard up by two, 65-63. Dixon got the ball and hit a transition layup with just two seconds left to play, tying the score and sending the contest to overtime.
In the overtime period, NC Wesleyan stepped up, outscoring Brevard 9-3 while forcing BC to go 0-for-7 from the field as the first-place Battling Bishops earned the hard-fought 74-68 victory on the road.
The Tornados will close out the regular season on Saturday, February 18 as Brevard travels to Raleigh, North Carolina to take on William Peace University at 2 p.m. Several scenarios are still in play for the four-through-six seeds in the 2023 USA South Conference Men's Basketball Tournament.
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-BC-
