Toccoa Falls, GA - After leading by as many as 16 in the contest, the Piedmont College Men's Basketball team was forced to hold off a late rally by the Screaming Eagles of Toccoa Falls College to claim an 83-77 victory. The Screaming Eagles cut the lead to only three with under a minute remaining in the game, but a turnover by Toccoa Falls and a late tip-in from the team's leading scorer Chase England sealed the Screaming Eagles' fate.

It was a close contest early on as the Screaming Eagles took the lead early, but Piedmont took the lead in the contest on a Jordyn Propst jumper to make it 11-9 and never let go of the advantage. Piedmont stretched it to a 15 point lead with 4:19 to go in the first half, but let Toccoa Falls sneak back into it before the break heading to the half with the score 44-36.

To open the second period, the Lions outscored Toccoa Falls 12-4 en route to taking a 16 point lead, the team's largest of the contest. That mark came on a layup by Brian Edwards with 14:24 remaining on the clock. Free throws kept the Screaming Eagles in the contest in the second half as they hit 63.2% in the final period knocking down 12-of-19 from the line.

It seemed to be all Piedmont in the game as midway through the second half PC knocked down three straight 3-pointers in just over a minute and a half, but the Screaming Eagles kept clawing their way back in the contest. With 4:08 remaining in the game, Toccoa Falls called a timeout down by 12. Out of that break, TFC connected for six straight points to cut that deficit in half.

With the clock at 1:05, Toccoa Fall's star Josh Barrett drained a 3-pointer to make it a four point game. Peyton Luken was fouled just seconds later and connected on both free throws to extend the lead back to six points, but it was again Barrett who hit from behind the arc cutting it to a three point game with only 51 seconds remaining.

The Screaming Eagles seemed poised to have a shot at tying the game after a Piedmont turnover, but a traveling call on the Screaming Eagles led to a Lions possession where the team was able to kill the clock. It was on that possession that England put back the tip-in off a missed 3-pointer that helped seal the game with 12 seconds left.

England totaled 22 points in the contest with 5 rebounds, giving him an average of just over 16 points per contest to open the season. Luken added 17 points and was hot from behind the arc knocking down 4-of-6 3-pointers. The team's leading rebounder was Justin Vallejo, who snagged seven total boards, with six of them coming as defensive rebounds.

The Lions were up against the NCCAA Division II Men's Basketball Player of the Week Josh Barrett who had averaged 24 points per game over the past week, and lit up the scoreboard Saturday with 39 of the team's 77 points. Barrett was held to just 10-of-23 from the floor but was an impressive 16-of-19 at the line and led the Screaming Eagles with seven rebounds.

Piedmont will be back in action on Tuesday night as they travel to Sewanee for a late night contest with tipoff at 9:00 p.m.