Box Score Lexington, KY – The Piedmont College men's basketball team could not close the gap after Capital University opened a large 1st half lead en route to a 76-58 win over the Lions in the consolation game of the Don Lane Classic.  A night after Capital fell in double overtime to USA South member Maryville College at the tourney, the Crusaders looked hungry for a win handing Piedmont an 18-point loss, the Lions' third straight defeat on the year.

Capital claimed the opening tip and started the first half on a 9-0 run stopping Piedmont from scoring on its first three possessions to hold the early advantage.  Piedmont's Brian Edwards, who scored a career-high 31 points in last night's loss to the tourney host Transylvania, kept the lead from going to double digits before three minutes had elapsed laying up his first two of just eight points on the night. 

Piedmont kept the Crusaders within striking distance over the next few mintues as Aaron Thrams connected on a jumper with 13:24 remaining in the first to cut the Capital lead down to four.  However, an 11-0 run by Capital over the next five-plus minutes blew the lead up to 15 as the Crusaders started to seize control of the game leading 27-12 with 8:35 to go until halftime.

The Lions went on to score only eight more points over the final eight minutes of the half while Capital tallied 17 of their own to bring a 44-20 lead with them into the locker room at the midway break.  Down by 24 at the half, Piedmont was facing its third straight halftime deficit and the second by which the Lions trailed by double digits having dropped the first two such decisions of this three-game stretch.

In the second half, the Lions outscored the Crusaders 38-32, but the tone of the game had already been set by that point in the contest as Piedmont went on to fall by 18, 76-58, in the consolation game of the Don Lane Classic hosted by Transylvania University.  The final margin of 18 points was the least that Piedmont trailed by in the second half as Capital expanded their advantage as large as 30 on Mike Augustine's three-pointer with 12:34 to go in the game though Piedmont's Chase England was quick to trim the margin back down answering with a jumper just 14 seconds later.

Piedmont shot just under 40% (21-of-53) for the game while hit on better than 53% (28-of-52) of their tries from the field.  The Lions turned the ball over 19 times though compared to 11 by the Crusaders who scored 21 points off those 19 takeaways in the 18-point game.

For the game, Piedmont saw just two players eclipse double digits in scoring as Alton Honors II posted a dozen points on four of 11 shooting to follow up his 26 points in last night's loss to Transy.  The second of those two was Chris Meeks who scored 11 points on four of nine shooting as Meeks also led the team with his nine boards to finish just a rebound shy of the double-double.

Edwards scored eight points on three of eight shooting missing on his only three-point try of the night.  Fellow freshman Chase England scored nine points on 75% shooting from the field as he pulled down a trio of rebounds as well.

The loss is the third straight for Piedmont who falls to their even 4-4 overall record after a 4-1 start to the season.  This is only the second time on the season that the Lions have posted a record exactly at .500 having started the year at 1-1 though PC has yet to have a sub-.500 record on the 2013-14 season.

Now finished with competition for the calendar year, the Lions will be back in action this coming January as they take on in-state rival Emory University 16 days from now on the road.  That January 3rd contest at the Atlanta-based campus is set for a 7:00 pm tip off.  The Eagles are 6-3 on the season and were receiving votes in the last national poll released December 17th.