Box Score
For the second time this season, the Sewanee and Rhodes men's basketball teams have battled down to the wire. Unfortunately for the Tigers, who topped the Lynx January 2nd in Memphis on a thrilling half-court buzzer beater, the outcome wasn't the same Saturday afternoon. Once again, the visitors took home the win in the cross-state conference rivalry, but this time it was the Lynx, who topped the Tigers 57-54. The loss drops Sewanee to 8-13 overall and 3-10 in the SCAC. With the win, the Lynx move to 6-15 on the season and 2-11 in the conference,
The momentum traveled back and forth between the two squads throughout the first half, as the two teams traded baskets, and the lead, for the first nine minutes. Finally, starting at the 11:54 mark of the first half, Sewanee gained the first considerable lead of the game, using a 7-0 run to take an 18-11 lead over the Lynx. The run started with a pair of free throws by Sam Martin and was continued by back-to-back 3-pointers by Valentino Bryant.
After Sewanee pushed their lead to seven, the two teams traded several baskets before Rhodes scored six straight points to quickly take back a one-point lead, 21-20, with 5:11 remaining in the frame. The Tigers responded with a trey from Trent Williams and followed that up with an old-fashioned three-point play from Martin to take back a five-point edge, 26-21. Andrew Galow grabbed a jumper for the Lynx to cut the Tiger lead to three and then Joey Miller tipped in a basket for the guests to further cut into the Sewanee lead, making it 26-25, Tigers.
The Tigers managed to get a pair of jumpers from Bryant and Anvil Nelson to push their lead back to five, before trading baskets with the Lynx to put the difference back at five. Bryant got an old-fashioned three-point play of his own to extend the Tiger lead to six, 3-27, with just four seconds left in the half, but Galow nailed a trey at the buzzer to make the halftime score 33-30, Sewanee.
Sewanee opened up the second half by scoring four straight points to take a seven-point lead. The Lynx wouldn't let the lead last, using a quick 7-0 run to tie the game up for the fourth time, 37-37, less than four minutes into the half. Rhodes quickly got a pair of lay ups, one from Galow and one from Kory Kilpatrick to take a four-point lead, 41-37, before Trent Williams hit another three for the Tigers to cut the difference to one, 41-40.
The back-and-forth battle continued over the next several minutes before the Lynx managed to put two scores back-to-back and take a six-point lead, 48-42, at the 7:17 mark. Sewanee wasn't out of it yet, though, as they outscored the Lynx 9-2 over the next four minutes to regain the lead and go ahead 51-50 with three and a half minutes left to play.
Rhodes quickly responded with a jumper from Joey Miller to take the lead back, 52-51, and followed that up with a lay up and a free throw by Kilpatrick to go ahead four, 51-55, with 2:11 left in the game. Anvil Nelson managed to convert an old-fashioned three-point play of his own to chop the Lynx lead back down to one, 55-54, as the clock waned to 1:56.
The two teams would go the next 1:55 without scoring a point, Rhodes clinging to a one-point lead the entire time. With just one second left on the clock, Sewanee was forced to foul and John Dunavant connected on a pair of free throws to push the Rhodes lead to three, 57-54, and seal the win for the Lynx.
Bryant led Sewanee with 13 points, six rebounds, six assists, and three steals. Nelson chipped in 12 points and two assists. Tyler Brown added nine points and five rebounds for the hosts.
Rhodes' Andrew Galow led all scorers with 14 points, while Theo Hartwell also finished in double-digits for the guests after scoring ten points.
As a team, Sewanee went 19 of 50 from the floor (38%), 7 of 22 from the 3-point line (31.8%), and 9 of 9 from the free throw line. Rhodes finished the night 21 of 47 (44.7%) from the floor, 4 of 14 from the 3-point line (28.6%), and 11 of 13 from the charity stripe. The Lynx held a 34-24 edge in rebounding.
The Tigers will be back in action on Friday when they travel to Centre College for an 8 p.m. (EST) conference clash with the Colonels.
