DEMOREST, Ga. (Dec. 5, 2015) – The Sewanee men's basketball team is off to its best season start since the 1997-98 season, after the Tigers edged Piedmont 60-57, Saturday, inside Cave Arena.
The Tigers have now won four straight games and have a 5-1 overall record. That is the best start since the 1997-98 program began the season at 6-1. The victory also avenged two losses against Piedmont last season.
Early in the contest it was all Sewanee. The Tigers started the game on a 7-1 run after a Keshonn Carter jumper and five straight points from Clay Born. After Piedmont cut their deficit to a single possession, Sewanee used another spurt to eventually lead by nine, 23-14, after a Seth Brownjumper with 8:48 left in the first half.
After a quick 6-2 run by the Lions, Sewanee closed the half with an eight-point lead, 32-24, when freshman Matthew Lee hit a three with 34 seconds before intermission.
The Tigers maintained their multiple possession lead until 14:49 remaining in the contest. After Piedmont slowly chipped away at the Tiger lead over the first five minutes of the second half, a jumper by Trae Gaines cut the Lion deficit to three, 40-37.
Sewanee answered back with its own 8-4 run over the next four minutes. Down by seven with 10:55 left to play, seven straight points from Marquise Lanier, and four straight free throws by Chris Meeks, gave Piedmont its first lead of the contest with 5:49 remaining.
From there, freshman Cody Jones responded with four straight points for Sewanee. The score stayed close down the stretch. After Piedmont tied the contest at 56-56 with a Peyton Luken layup, junior Jorden Williams quickly raced the ball into the frontcourt and drew a Piedmont foul. The Chattanooga, Tenn., native then made both free throws, which gave Sewanee a 58-56 lead with 1:22 left.
After Luken failed to convert both his free throw attempts on the next Piedmont possession, Williams missed a three attempt with 40 seconds to play. However, after a Piedmont timeout, it was again Jones that stepped up. The freshman guard stole the ball from Luken and then made both ensuing free throws.
Overall, Sewanee was led by its defense, which limited Piedmont to a 21.4 three-point field-goal percentage and forced 20 turnovers. Those turnovers led to 21 Tiger points. Additionally, Sewanee had 25 points off the bench, led by Brown's 10.
Brown has now scored in double figures four of his past five games. Sewanee also got great production from Born, who led all Tigers with a game-high 13 points. Jones also added nine points, three rebounds, two assists, and three steals.
Sewanee returns to action with a 7:00 p.m. contest at Huntingdon on Tuesday. The Tigers defeated Huntingdon 93-73 on November 13th to open the season.
For more information on Sewanee Athletics, please visit www.SewaneeTigers.com. You can also check the Tigers out on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr.