BREVARD, N.C. - In front of a packed house at Boshamer Gymnasium, the Brevard College men's basketball team came oh-so-close to knocking off its second consecutive South Atlantic Conference foe.
Instead, it was the visiting Mars Hill Lions that came away victorious in a 78-75 win that was in doubt until the final buzzer.
Brevard (3-16, 2-11 SAC) shot 52.7 percent from the field (29-of-55), its third game in the last four contests shooting 50 percent or better. But the Tornados were undone at the free throw line, making 12 of 20 attempts at the charity stripe. Mars Hill (9-10, 5-8 SAC) shot just 47.2 percent at the line but took 16 more free throws than the Tornados.
Miles Leathers recorded his fourth double-double of the season, finishing second on the team with 20 points to go along with a game-high 10 rebounds. Demarcus Threatt led all scorers with 25 points, while Stevie Williams reached double digits for the second consecutive game with a 10-point effort.
The Lions came into the game sporting the nation's 14th-lowest rebounding margin, but limited the Tornados to four offensive rebounds and no second-chance points. The Lions' penchant for coming up with crucial offensive rebounds was on display as the clock ticked inside six minutes to play.
Brevard had held Mars Hill without a field goal over a four-minute stretch of the second half while the Tornados battled back to take a 63-62 lead on a D.J. Bostick triple. Two possessions later, Mars Hill regained the lead on a dunk in transition by Tyree Griffin.
On each of their next two trips down the floor, Griffin notched tip-ins off Lions' misses to give Mars Hill the lead for good. Griffin's final shot attempt of the night came on a jumper in the paint with 1:04 remaining, putting the Lions ahead 72-69 before the Tornados were forced to foul.
Brevard fell behind by as many as four points in the final seconds before Threatt's three-point shot with 0.5 seconds remaining cut the deficit to a single point. Williams alertly fouled Mars Hill's Patrick Monroe with 0.2 seconds on the clock as the Lions tried to throw the ball in quickly. Monroe was true on both free throw attempts. Threatt lined up a 70-foot attempt as the buzzer sounded that would have sent the game to overtime, but the shot fell just to the right of the hoop to preserve Mars Hill's victory.
Mars Hill's crucial buckets down the stretch helped the Lions undo the damage from an impressive Tornados' run in the first half. Nine straight Tornados' points led to a 25-10 Brevard run spanning 8:24 punctuated by a Bostick three-pointer that pushed Brevard's lead to eight. Leathers scored 12 of his 20 points during the stretch.
The Lions were paced by four players in double figures, led by Monroe's 23. Justin Yeargin chipped in 22 points to go along with a game-high five assists and a team-high nine rebounds. Tyree Griffin and Jalen Witherspoon each contributed 14 points to the winning effort. The quartet helped Mars Hill to a 50.0-percent evening from the field, as the Lions shot an identical 14-for-28 during each half.
Brevard will play its third game in five days on Wednesday when the Tornados travel to Tex Turner Arena to face seventh-ranked Lincoln Memorial. Tipoff is set for 8:00 p.m.
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Featured image courtesy of Tommy Moss.
