BREVARD, N.C. - The Brevard College men's basketball team dropped a 79-65 decision to visiting Coker on Saturday afternoon in a matchup with large postseason implications.
The Cobras (10-12, 9-9 SAC) got a 30-point performance from Errick Bethel, the South Atlantic Conference's leading scorer, and forced 20 Brevard (10-14, 8-10 SAC) turnovers to claim the victory. Coker came away with 16 steals, the most by a Tornados' opponent since a game against Lenoir-Rhyne on January 6, 2010.
Bethel showed the way for the Cobras with a record-setting shooting day. The senior guard attempted seven three-point field goals, the most by a Tornados' opponent since Tusculum's Kyle Moore put up 18 shots from beyond the arc in February of 2010, and had the most field goal attempts (25) of anyone playing against the Tornados since at least nine years ago.
Bethel's supporting cast was also impressive. Donte Samuels had a solid day with 16 points on just 5-of-7 shooting while Trey Marshall, the conference leader in assists, dished out seven helpers to go along with three steals.
Several Tornados, however, played extremely well in the losing effort. Darius Moose had 24 points and tied his career high with three blocked shots. By making six free throws on the afternoon, he also became Brevard's NCAA-era leader from the charity stripe, surpassing Josh Roper with 251 made foul shots.
Miles Leathers followed up a spectacular showing in Wednesday's win at Carson-Newman with another double-double, tying his season high with 20 points and coming up one rebound shy of equaling his career high of 11 set three days ago. He also set a season high with seven made field goals and tied a season mark with 13 attempts. With two steals, Leathers becomes the second Brevard player since the NCAA era began to reach 100 steals in his career and is 33 thefts shy of equaling Josh Roper's school record.
Trevon Shaw joined Moose and Leathers in double figures with 14 points and contributed six rebounds. The trio accounted for over 89 percent of Brevard's scoring output on the afternoon, however, as the rest of the team combined for just seven points on 2-of-12 from the floor.
The Tornados played well in the early going, battling back and forth with the Cobras until taking a 21-17 lead on a three-point basket by Moose just past the midway point of the first half. The teams traded jabs for the next six minutes until Coker regained the lead on a three-point play by Samuels that put the visitors up by two points.
The bucket catalyzed a crippling run by the Cobras that spanned eight minutes across both halves. Coker would go on to score the next nine points on its way to closing the first half on a 15-5 run. By the time the game reached the 16:44 mark of the second half, the run grew to 26-7 and gave Coker an insurmountable 18-point advantage. Although Brevard made several attempts to claw back into the game, the lead never dwindled below 12 points the rest of the way.
Brevard will look to rebound quickly as it prepares to host its biggest home game of the season on Wednesday night. No. 5 Lincoln Memorial, 69-37 winners over Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday, travels to Boshamer Gymnasium for a 7:00 p.m. contest that will be televised locally on WMYA My40 in the time slot immediately preceding the North Carolina at Duke matchup. The Tornados will look to knock off a top-five team for the first time since beating undefeated fifth-ranked LMU 82-77 on February 16, 2011.
Featured image courtesy of Tommy Moss.
