Belmont Abbey Men's Basketball Nipped at Mars Hill, 69-66

Belmont Abbey junior forward Kyle Phillips tied for the game-high with 17 points, but Mars Hill broke a 65-65 tie by scoring four of the last five points and held on as the Crusaders missed two jumpers in the final five seconds as the Lions escaped with a 69-66 win this afternoon. Both teams are now 3-2 on the year. The Abbey's five games have been decided by a combined 16 points. The three wins have been by nine points and the two losses by seven points.

The Crusaders led 33-27 at the half as they closed the stanza on an 11-5 run after the game was tied for the fifth time at 22-22 with 6:54 left.

A free throw from Richard Barbee pushed the Abbey ahead, and a jumper from Phillips after a Lions basket put the Abbey on top for good in the half.

After a Barbee steal, he raced down and sank a layup to move the lead to three at 27-24 with 6:04 left. After that, the two teams went scoreless for nearly three minutes until a free throw from Mars Hill's Austin Patton at the 3:52 mark closed the Crusader lead to two points.

1:40 later, Tyshawn Good registered a steal and a layup to extend the Crusader lead to four, and with 26 seconds left, he cradled a missed shot by Terrone Sheffey and scored on a putback to move the lead to six at 31-25. Matthew Graves added to the lead, moving it to six with an offensive rebound and score, but Mars Hill's Julian Mack answered with a layup with five seconds left to cut the halftime deficit to 33-27 Belmont Abbey.

In the second half the Crusaders opened on a 9-4 run to take their biggest lead of the game at 11 points, 42-31, with 14:51 left.

The Lions scored the next six points to close the gap to five, but the Abbey quickly moved the lead back to eight with three-straight free throws.

Again Mars Hill would whittle the Abbey lead down to as few as two points at 49-47 with 10:10 to go, but the Crusaders answered with back-to-back jumpers from Barbee and Jay Council.

Mars Hill stayed within five points and would go on a 9-4 run to cut the lead down to one at 59-58 with 4:48 left, but again the Abbey responded, answering with a jumper from Graves and a three-pointer from Barbee to move the cushion to six points at 64-58 with 2:53 left.

The Lions would not go away, as Donterius Hughes gave the Lions the lead for good by scoring the next seven points. He sank a jumper with 2:35 left, a free throw at the 2:15 mark and capped his run with a trifecta at the 1:52 mark to give the Lions their first lead since the 7:31 mark in the first half.

After a Mars Hill foul, Sheffey hit the first free throw to tie the game for the sixth time at 65-65 with 1:26 left. He missed the second free throw and Mars Hill regained the lead on the next possession to go ahead by two points.

26 seconds later, the Lions hit two free throws to move their lead to four. Council was then fouled with 21 ticks left and missed the first free throw and hit the second for what turned out to be the final points of the game.

After his missed free throw, Hughes was fouled on the other end and missed both shots with 19 seconds left.  Barbee cradled the second rebound to give the Abbey possession.

With five seconds left, he missed the jumper, but the rebound went out of bounds off of Mars Hill. After an Abbey timeout, Barbee fired a three-pointer with two seconds left that again sailed out of bounds off of Mars Hill. The Crusaders did not get off another shot as Mars Hill escaped with the win.

Belmont Abbey shot 37.1 percent (26-70) as Phillips registered a double double, tying the game-high with 17 points and a game-high 12 rebounds in 17 minutes. Barbee added 16 points, five rebounds and four steals. The Abbey won the rebounding edge 47-42.

Hughes led the Lions with 17 points and five rebounds, while Sammy Emile added 11 points. The Lions shot 44.1 percent (26-59) for the game.