Box Score
Fayetteville, NC -- The Piedmont College men's basketball team held a one-point advantage at the half but saw Methodist University find a second wind in the second half to earn a 75-66 victory over the visiting Lions. The host Monarchs got 23 points from sophomore guard James Whitehead to take the nine point decision for their second win of the young season while handing PC its first loss of 2011-12.
In a game that stayed tight throughout, the two squads found themselves tied at 7 each over five minutes into the first half until a
Kevin Kubandi free throw and a three-point bucket from
Dylan Delaney put PC up four at 11-7. The visiting Lions extended their advantage to six when
Josh Haymore slashed through the lane at the 13:10 mark for an easy layup as PC went up 13-7.
The two sides then started to trade shots as Methodist refused to let the Lions run away with a large first half lead as Brian Hockaday scored two of his eight points with a layup at the 8:15 mark to cut Piedmont's advantage to just one at 17-16. However, young Lion
Richarson Myrthil responded with a two-point bucket of his own in the first road action for the freshman out of Boynton Beach, FL to put PC back up by three at 19-16.
The Lions carried the lead with them into the halftime break though a pair of late free throws from Methodist would hold that margin to just one point at 34-33. When the two came out of the locker rooms, they would once again battle for the lead until the midway point of the second half when Methodist would unleash an 18-2 run turning a seven point Piedmont lead with just under 14 minutes remaining into a 61-52 Monarch margin with seven and some change to play.
The Lions could not recover from that second half outburst down the stretch coming to within three of Methodist at 66-69 on
Tracey Gardner's jumper with just under a minute to play. However, six Monarch free throws and five missed attempts from Piedmont in the final 59 seconds helped salt away the Methodist victory on its home floor with the USA South member getting a nine point win in Fayetteville.
Piedmont was lead by a veteran and a youngster in the scoring department with senior
Josh Haymore and freshman
Dylan Delaney each sinking four field goals to get their team-high 12 points each. All of Delaney's points on the afternoon came from behind the three-point arc while Haymore picked up a pair of tri-fectas, two two-point buckets, and a pair of free throws to get his total.
Leading the way in the assist department was sophomore
Kyle Lundberg who had five on the day while also sinking all four of his free throw attemtps in the loss, two of which came during that Methodist run in the second half. Posting a team-high six rebounds was a pair of new faces in
Richarson Myrthil and
Jessie Jenkins as the two also combined for 17 total points.
The Lions will continue their East Coast road trip through the state of North Carolina when they travel to Greensboro College for a Sunday afternoon battle on November 27th. Tipoff in that road contest for PC is set for 2:00 pm.
