The Piedmont College men's basketball team picked up its first victory of the season tonight with an 87-73 non-conference victory over visiting Methodist University in the Lions' home-opener in Cave Arena. Piedmont led the entire game en route to moving to 1-2 overall on the season.

PC jumped out to a 27-12 lead midway through the first half only to see the Monarch use a 17-6 run late in the half to cut the Lions' lead to 43-40 at intermission. Piedmont opened the second half with a run of their own to take a 61-47 lead. Piedmont held a double-figure lead for most of the second half leading by as many as 18. Methodist would again answer to cut the lead to six with just over two minutes remaining but Piedmont iced its first victory of the season with a strong finish. 

Jake Baldwin scored a game-high 24 points, including 17 in the second half, to go along with a game-high 15 rebounds marking the junior's second double-double of the season. Michael Adams added 20 points on 5-8 shooting from behind the three-point line. Tyler Whitlock added 11 points and 10 rebound for his first career double-double. Jake Green rounded out the Lions' balanced offensive attack with 17 points, nine assists, and nine rebounds coming just a single rebound and assist shy of a triple-double. 

Darrien Anderson's 21 points led the Monarch as the Lions held all five of MU's starters to eight points or less. The undersized Lions also outrebounded Methodist 52-35 on the night.

Piedmont returns to action on Tuesday, November 28th when the Lions travel to Atlanta, GA to take on nationally-ranked Southern Polytechnic State University with game time set for 7:00. SPSU is ranked 12th in the latest NAIA Division-I national poll.