Trailing 47-46 with 13:06 left, the Abbey's Kyle Phillips hit a short jumper to put the Crusaders atop for good at 48-47 with 12:26 to go. The lead mushroomed to as high as eight points on four different occasions, the last coming on a layup from Richard Barbee with 4:38 to play.
Brevard responded by scoring the next six points to trim its deficit to a pair at 64-62 with exactly 3:00 to play. A jumper and two free throws by Terrone Sheffey bookended a layup from Brevard to push the lead back to four with 1:41 left.
A three pointer by Brevard's Josh Roper momentarily cut the lead to one, but Phillips answered with a short jumper of his own to push the advantage back to three with 1:11 left. 14 seconds later, Roper sliced the lead back to one with two free throws at the 56 second mark.
With 36 seconds left, Phillips missed both free throws, but the second was knocked out of bounds off of Brevard underneath the Tornados defensive end. After two-consecutive Abbey timeouts, Barbee was all alone under the basket and missed the ensuing layup, but Phillips grabbed the offensive rebound and fed Sheffey, who was fouled with 25 seconds left. Sheffey drained both ends to extend the cushion to three points at 72-69.
Brevard moved down the floor and called a timeout with 21 seconds left. After the stoppage, Roper lifted a three-point attempt that was off, and Barbee cradled the rebound and was immediately fouled with four seconds left. His two free throw attempts were pure to move the lead to 74-69. Roper drilled a three-pointer from 22 feet at the buzzer to provide the final points.
Roper led all scorers with 26 points on 7-16 shooting from the field and a 10-11 effort from the free throw line. He added seven rebounds, three assists and a steal in 36 minutes. Gaither Hendrix added 12 points and Drew Schauss finished with ten points as the Tornados shot 48.2 percent (27-56) from the field but just 3-10 from three-point range.
Belmont Abbey shot 41 percent (25-61) from the floor and was 4-11 from three-point range. Barbee led the way with 23 points on 7-10 shooting and sank seven of eight free throw attempts. He also had six rebounds, three assists and a steal. Barbee now has 1,505 career points, becoming just the 12th player in school history to score at least 1,500 in his career. Phillips posted 21 points on 8-18 shooting with eight rebounds, two blocked shots and a steal in 33 minutes. Sheffey posted 13 points, two rebounds, two assists and a steal in 36 minutes.
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