The Brevard College Men’s Basketball team defeated USA South Conference West Division leading Covenant 75-69 on Tuesday evening at the Boshamer Gymnasium.
The Tornados used a dominant 13-0 run to close out the game for the win, holding Covenant scoreless over the final three minutes of the contest.
The victory came on Jameson’s Joy Night as the Tornados helped raise awareness for the Jameson’s Joy Memorial Service Foundation. The foundation was created to honor the life and legacy of an amazing 9-year-old boy who passed away last year. The foundation hopes to inspire people to build and strengthen their communities through random acts of kindness – just as Jameson did. For more information, go to www.jamesonsjoy.org
In the win, Brevard was led by junior forward Cannon Lamb who scored 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting including a 4-of-7 performance from beyond the arc. It marked the Marion, North Carolina native’s second consecutive 20-point scoring output and the eighth time this season he has scored 20 or more points in a game.
Seniors Levi Lamb (17 pts) and Demari Hopper (16 pts) also scored in double figures with each player also pulling down five rebounds. Sophomore Hayden Cassell led the bench scorers with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting from the field including a three-pointer.
Will Crumly, the only Scot to score in double figures, led Covenant with 26 points and seven rebounds.
Brevard jumped out to a 7-2 lead following the opening tip in an early run capped by Cannon Lamb’s first of four made three-pointers. Covenant answered however with a 9-0 run to take an 11-7 lead with just over ten minutes remaining in the opening half. The lead then seesawed back-and-forth for the remainder of the first half with the Scots taking a 31-30 lead into halftime.
The second half remained close for the first 12 minutes until Covenant built a seven-point lead with 7:22 to play. The Tornados battled back as two free throws by Levi lamb cut the deficit to 64-62. The Scots however answered with five consecutive points to take another seven-point lead, 69-62 with 3:12 remaining.
Brevard locked down defensively from that point forward as the Scots would not score a single point for the remainder of the contest. The Tornados defense held Covenant on multiple possessions during crunch time as the Scots missed their final seven shots from the field.
Meanwhile, the Brevard offense did its part to manufacture the definitive 13-0 scoring run. The run began with another three-pointer by Cannon Lamb at the 2:58 mark. Following a layup by Levi lamb and a made free throw by Qadhafi Turner, Cannon Lamb sank two free throws to give BC the lead 70-69 with 1:28 to play. The Tornados then closed out the victory at the charity stripe with made free throws by Levi Lamb, Turner and Hopper.
In total, Brevard shot 54% from the field, while holding Covenant to a 40% shooting performance. The Scots made eight three-pointers compared to five makes from beyond the arc for the Tornados. BC shot 16-of-22 from the free throw line as Covenant drained 15 of its 16 free throw attempts.
The back-and-forth affair for much of the night featured 10 lead changes and eight ties with neither team ever leading by more than seven points.
Brevard will return to action on Saturday at 4 p.m. with a road conference match up at Maryville in Maryville, Tennessee in the penultimate game of the season. The season finale will take place on Saturday, February 22 vs. Huntingdon on Senior Day at the Boshamer Gymnasium.
Brevard College is consistently recognized as one of the best liberal arts colleges. The College’s focus on experiential learning, small class sizes, and location in the mountains of Western North Carolina near Asheville make Brevard a top choice college for students around the world.