Demorest, GA – After beginning the season matching the best start at home in the NCAA era, the Piedmont College men’s basketball team was unable to keep pace with Covenant College after giving up 22 turnovers to the Scots in a 69-61 defeat. The Scots scored 21 points off those turnovers and had twice as many steals as the Lions.
The Lions were led by Chris Meeks and Chase England who both tallied double-doubles in the game. Meeks notched his third double-double of the season with 10 points and a team-high 12 rebounds while England had his second double-double of the season with a team-high 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Piedmont started hot from the floor as they took a 15-5 lead with 14:34 remaining in the first half, their largest lead of the night, but the Scots went on an 8-2 run to begin cutting into the lead. The Scots took their first lead of the game with just over 5:00 to go till the half on a layup by Robby Bell to put the Scots ahead 27-26.
Trae Gaines was key to the Lions keeping it close in the first half as he scored all 11 of his points in the first half. Gaines scored 7 of those points in the final four and a half minutes of the first half and the Lions went in to the break down 36-33.
Out of the break, neither team scored over the first two minutes of play, but Chris Meeks ended that with a layup to make it a one point game at 36-35. Justin Vallejo hit one to give the Lions the lead 37-36 with 17:00 to play, and increased that to a three point lead after hitting two free throws with 15:39 on the clock.
The Scots then went on a 10-1 run to regain the lead and never let up. Jessie Jenkins cut it to a four point game at 57-53 with 5:23 to go after nailing one from deep but that was the only basket the Lions would make outside of free throws until there was 0:14 left in the game when Chase England connected from deep.
The Scots had the hot hand in the game as T.J. Cox had a game-high 21 points in 25 minutes. Covenant also saw 31 points, nearly half its total, come from their bench players.
Piedmont returns to the court inside Cave Arena taking on Maryville on Saturday as part of a doubleheader with the Lady Lions. Tipoff Saturday is scheduled for 2 p.m. with the broadcast available on the Mane Event Broadcasting Network and WCON Radio.
