SEWANEE, Tenn. -- Colton McGriff started the night hoping to become the latest player in Covenant history to record 1,000 career points. In the end, he and the Scots fell a little short as McGriff finished one point shy of the milestone and Covenant suffered a 77-64 defeat at the hands of Sewanee.

The loss is Covenant's fifth in a row and drops the Scots to 1-6 on the year. Sewanee gets to .500 on the season at 3-3.

McGriff ended up with 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting, which leaves him stuck at 999 career points going into Wednesday's game vs. Emory. TJ Cox was the only other Covenant player in double figures with 11. Will Portlock scored nine points, a career-high, with three rebounds and two steals and Z Arima came off the bench to also score nine in just 12 minutes of play.

Covenant only turned the ball over six times, but shot 40.7 percent from the field and allowed Sewanee to shoot a scorching 56.2 percent from the floor.

The Tigers jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead and led 22-5 nine minutes into the game. Covenant cut the lead to 10 at 22-12 on a fastbreak layup by Arima, but Sewanee pulled away again and led 43-26 at halftime on the strength of 65.5 percent shooting.

While the Scots played much better in the second half. Covenant shot 48.1 percent from the field, including 42.9 percent from 3-point range, and got to within nine with 3:33 left after a McGriff jumper. Sewanee quickly got its margin back up to double digits and the Scots would get no closer the rest of the way.

For Sewanee, they were led by the 25 points of Jorden Williams. They also got 17 points and eight rebounds from Keshonn Carter, while Seth Brown and Marcellus Caldwell added 10 and nine, respectively. Caldwell also pulled down a game-high nine boards as the Tigers outrebounded Covenant 37-21.

Covenant will try to get back on the winning track when they come home to face No. 9-ranked Emory at 5:30 on Wednesday.