Men's Basketball Tops Anderson 97-85 For Seventh-Straight Win

SALISBURY, N.C. -- Catawba out-scored visiting Anderson to claim a 97-85 victory on Saturday afternoon at Goodman Gym. The win sends the Catawba Indians to its seventh-straight win, improving to 13-4 overall and 8-1 in the South Atlantic Conference. The Trojans go to 5-13 and 2-6.

DeAngelo Epps knocked down 20 points and pulled down nine rebounds to pace the high-scoring Indian attack. Jerome Bivins connected on five three-pointers to net 19 points with Javeon Jones added 18. Anderson got eight three-pointers and 28 points from Jalen Hillery and a double-double of 23 points and 13 rebounds from Jackson Greco.

Catawba used a big edge in turnovers to spur the win. The Indians made just four turnovers to 17 for the Trojans. That led to a 26-5 scoring edge off those mistakes.

The game featured a dozen lead changes, but Anderson never led by more than two points. The last lead for the visitors came at 54-53 with 15:18 left. A jumper by Jones 10 seconds later gave Catawba a lead it never gave up. An 8-0 run had the Indians up 61-54 and the advantage reached 13 midway through the second half.

Anderson closed within seven in the final minutes, but Catawba was solid from the line to stay in front. The Indians made 9-of-10 over the last 1:21 and made 21-of-29 for the game. Anderson canned nine three-pointers in the opening half, but cooled off to just 4-of-14 in the final half and a 44-33 edge on the glass couldn't overcome the disparity in turnovers.

Catawba hits the road on Wednesday to take on Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory, N.C. at 7:30 p.m.