The Lenoir-Rhyne University men “won ugly”.
The Bears did not play well, but they bettered Brevard College 56-45 Saturday night for their third straight victory.
“There wasn’t anything pretty about it – not with that many turnovers (23),” LRU head coach John Lentz said.
Lenoir-Rhyne (7-8, 3-3 South Atlantic Conference) won largely because Brevard (2-13, 1-5) shot only 27.3 percent.
The Tornadoes’ 45 points were the fewest scored by an LRU opponent since the Bears’ 71-44 win over Brevard in 2009.
“I think some of it had to do with our defense,” Lentz said.
“After four minutes or so (the Tornados’) Gaither Hendrix didn’t get much of a look. Kevin Davis and Jarrick Brown got into his body.”
Hendrix, a West Caldwell High graduate who was averaging 18.3 points per game, finished with 13 points. He had scored the first five points of the game and added a 3-point play that gave Brevard an 11-2 lead after four minutes and 17 seconds.
Teammate Drew Schauss led all scorers with 17 points, 15 in the second half.
After a Schauss layup put Brevard on top 21-19 with 7:28 remaining in the first half, the Tornados didn’t make a field goal during the next 11 minutes and 15 seconds.
LRU staged a 13-0 run, with Davis scoring seven points, to turn a 22-21 deficit into a 34-22 lead.
The Bears were ahead 53-33 after a layup by Allan Jones with 7:10 left in the game, but they failed to make a field goal thereafter.
“We stopped moving the ball,” Lentz said. “We started getting selfish with it.”
Jones led LRU with 13 points, Davis scored 12, 10 in the first half, and Hunter McClintock added 11 points for the Bears.
LRU played without guards Denzel Dillingham, A.J. McKenzie and Jon Hathcock.
Dillingham, a freshman from Hickory High who leads the team in scoring, missed his second straight game because his eligibility remains in doubt.
Brent Heaberlin, LRU associate athletic director and NCAA compliance director, said he will submit to the NCAA on Tuesday a request for a waiver that would permit the university to apply a correspondence course to Dillingham’s first semester.
Dillingham apparently will be ineligible if the NCAA does not grant the waiver.
McKenzie remained sidelined due to an ankle injury and Hathcock suffered a cut mouth, which he said required six sutures, in Wednesday’s game against Wingate.
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