Box Score Demorest, GA - After holding a lead as large as 15, the Piedmont College men's basketball team was forced to win the game late earlier this afternoon taking an 87-85 victory over Berry College in a thrilling game to welcome back the fans at the Cave from Thanksgiving break. Piedmont saw its first half lead trimmed before the halftime break setting up a winner take all final 20 minutes that saw the young Lions grow up before the eyes of the hometown crowd coming away with the tight two-point win late.

Berry had the momentum in the early going taking a 16-8 lead on a pair of free throws by Owen Jacobs, the Vikings' double-double machine on the year, who connected on his tries at the 14:19 mark of the first half to give the visitors an eight point lead.  Jacobs, who was coming off a 28-point performance in Berry's win over Columbia International prior to the holiday, had tallied a double-double in every game so far for the visitors who came into today's contest with a 3-1 record.

Jacobs was held to his second lowest point total of the season with his 18 on the day and held to single digit boards for the first time all season by the Lions.  As a team, Piedmont outrebounded the taller Vikings in the first half 17-16 doing well to keep Berry off the glass through halftime.

After Jacobs' free throws gave Berry their eight point lead, Piedmont scored the next 13 points to take a 21-16 advantage at the midway point of the first half.  A Berry field goal stopped the 13-0 run by the Lions who turned right around to score the next six points with four of those coming from USA South Rookie of the Week honoree Chase England as the freshman helped his team build a nine point lead with seven to play.

Piedmont went up 15 on an England three from the top of the key at the 4:04 mark of the first half, but from there it was the Berry Vikings who took over trimming the Lions' margin all the way down to six just before the half on a Hunter Smoak three-pointer. 

After leading 45-39 at halftime, PC worked to keep their lead throughout much of the second half, a feat that they were able to accomplish up until the final minutes as Berry saw Smoak connect on another three with just about two and a half minutes remaining in the game to tie the score at 79 all.  The spotlight then moved from Smoak to Piedmont's Chris Meeks as the Savannah native tallied six of PC's final eight points down the stretch including what turned out to be the game winning shot with just seconds remaining.

Meeks broke the 79-79 deadlock with his pair of free throw tries with 2:10 remaining only to see Berry come back to tie the game up, something the Vikings would do three of the four times PC took a lead in the final two minutes.  However, it was that fourth time that Piedmont took the lead that proved to be the decider as Chris Meeks' layup on a fast break that came after the Lions broke full court pressure by the Vikings with just 12 seconds to go gave PC the eventual 87-85 victory.

Meeks had eight points in the game and just two up until the final minutes as he picked a half dozen of his total over that last two minute stretch which won the game for Piedmont.  It's a recurring theme for the Lions to have a new player step up each time they need the lift with freshman Brian Edwards having done so in their last win, a road victory over Truett-McConnell College.  Before Edwards, it was another youngster in Chase England who scored 19 points off the bench in Piedmont's 83-74 win over local foe Toccoa Falls College.

Piedmont's Jessie Jenkins had a team high 19 points on six of 14 shooting as he collected five of his points from the free throw line staying active in the paint for the home team. A handful down low for the Vikings, Jenkins was a big reason why Piedmont was able to outscore visiting Berry 40-32 in the paint despite the noticeable size difference in the two squads. 

Three other Lions were in double figures in the scoring column including Safari Smith, Brian Edwards, and Alton Honors II.  Smith had 12 points to go with his team high eight assists on several pretty looks down low.  Smith also tied for the team lead in steals with his pair along with Honors II who had ten points and topped the team in rebounding with his seven. 

Edwards also scored ten on the night hitting on five of his eight tries from the field to shoot better than 62%, the second highest mark in the young career of the freshman from East Hall high school who shot better than 66% in his collegiate debut two weeks ago, a 66-61 win over Earlham College in the Shrine Tournament hosted by Marietta College.

The win gives the Piedmont men's basketball team their best five-game start in the program's NCAA era which started with the 2003-04 season.  At 4-1, the Lions have beaten their first opponent from the Southern Athletic Association on the schedule and will face another SAA opponent on Saturday, December 7th when they travel to Atlanta, Georgia for a battle with Oglethorpe University.  Tip off in the road contest is set for 7:00 pm.