The Brevard College men’s basketball team (8-15, 5-7 USAS) concluded its regular season with a 81-71 defeat to visiting LaGrange College (15-10, 10-2 USAS) on Saturday afternoon at the Boshamer Gymnasium. Prior to tip-off, Brevard’s senior class of Luke Bleynat, Hayden Cassell, Alex Glaze and Alex Wesig were honored in a pregame ceremony to celebrate the four seniors’ contributions to the program.
With the regular season complete, the Tornados will turn their attention to the USA South Conference Tournament. Brevard, seeded fourth in the West Division, will travel to Lookout Mountain, Georgia to face no. 1 seed Covenant in the First Round of the tournament on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. ET.
On Saturday in the matchup vs. LaGrange, the Tornados outscored the Panthers in the second half, yet were unable to overcome an early deficit.
Ten different Tornados found the scoring column led by sophomore LB Boyette and Chancey Watson who each registered 13 points on identical 5-of-9 shooting from the field.
Sophomore Charles Reed added nine points with Cassell and freshman Garrett Sutherland each adding eight points. Wesig scored six points to go along with five rebounds and four assists. Bleynat also pulled down five boards to go along with a team-high five assists.
BC fell behind 8-0 in the game’s first four minutes, until a 3-pointer by Glaze gave the Tornados their first points of the afternoon.
The Panthers went on to maintain a double-digit lead for most for the opening half and took a 40-27 advantage into halftime.
In the second stanza, LC extended its lead to 65-48 with 9:33 remaining. The Tornados caught fire the following minutes, reeling off a 12-0 run capped by a jumper by Sutherland.
BC was able to keep the deficit within single digits over the final minutes, but were not able to gain a lead as LaGrange held on for the eventual 81-71 road win.
LaGrange (50%) and BC (47.4%) both had similar shooting performances from the field with the Tornados (8 3PM) sinking three more 3-pointers than the Panthers (5 3PM). LC shot 18-of-20 from the charity stripe compared to 9-of-13 for Brevard.
The Tornados now head to Covenant for the program’s first trip to the USA South Conference tournament. The winner of Tuesday’s first round game will advance to the tourney’s semifinals to play the winner of the Pfeiffer-NC Wesleyan matchup. For more information, visit usasouth.net.