ANDERSON, S.C. – Behind a balanced attack, the Anderson men's basketball team wrapped up a two-game South Atlantic Conference homestand by outpacing Lenoir-Rhyne, 69-66, Saturday afternoon at the Abney Athletic Center.
Anderson (11-14, 8-13 SAC) snapped a three-game skid and earned a sweep of the regular season series, while Lenoir-Rhyne (8-15, 7-13 SAC) saw its win streak halted at four.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Forward Parker Dortch dropped in a game-high 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field, while handing out three assists, swiping three steals and recording five rebounds. Guard Crosby James II scored 15 points and pulled down a game-high eight rebounds. The Columbia native also handed out three assists.
Forward Josh Livingston added 11 points and five boards, with Mack Burgett scoring a season-high nine points and grabbing seven rebounds. Forward Jalen Hillery posted eight points, with guard Mason Carver tallying seven points, three rebounds and three assists.
Junior forward TJ Nesmith led the Bears with 16 points and six rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half
The Trojans scored the first seven points of the afternoon, with Lenoir-Rhyne chipping away and evening the score at 13 apiece with 13:04 on the clock.
Livingston's first 3-pointer less than a minute later put AU back in front, but the Bears countered with nine straight points to capture their largest lead of the day, at 22-16, midway through the half.
The score was deadlocked two more times inside the final seven minutes, before LR used a late 6-2 surge in the final four minutes to claim a 32-31 advantage, while Carver connected on a long 3-pointer just before the buzzer to give the Trojans a 34-32 halftime advantage.
Second Half
AU equaled its largest cushion of the afternoon by again opening fast – this time building a double-digit, 46-36, lead with 15:22 left in the contest.
The Trojans still led, 58-49, with just more than seven minutes on the clock, before the Bears whittled the AU advantage to just three less than two minutes later. Another trey from Livingston rebuilt the Black and Gold lead to 61-55 before LR's Tim Steele and Jalen Johnson each sank two free throws apiece to cut the Trojans' lead to 61-59.
Hillery answered with a jumper from the left baseline for the Trojans and combined with James to go a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line inside the final 2:39 to hold off the Bears down the stretch.
ANDERSON STAT OF THE DAY
The Trojans shot 52.2% from the field in the second half and were 13-of-16 from the charity stripe on the afternoon.
NOTABLES
• AU's win/loss margin in 15 of its 25 games this season has been by an average of 3.2 points.
• Crosby James II is the most recent member of the men's basketball 1,000-point club and now needs two points to move past Jeremy Bouton (2015-19) for 14th place in the school record books.
• With three games remaining on their regular-season schedule, the Trojans are in eighth place in the battle for a berth in next month's eight-team SAC Tournament - one game behind seventh-place Catawba and 3 ½ games behind sixth-place Newberry. AU is one game ahead of ninth-place Limestone, a half-game ahead of 10th-place Lenoir-Rhyne and 1 ½ games ahead of 11th-place Mars Hill.
• The Trojans and Bears have met 24 times, with Anderson holding a 15-9 edge in the series since the 2006-07 campaign ... AU is 9-2 versus the Bears at the Abney Center, 6-6 at LR's Shuford Memorial Gym and 0-1 at a neutral site.
• AU has won six of the last seven matchups with the Bears.
• The Trojans out-rebounded LR, 33-28. And pulled down 11 offensive boards.
UP NEXT
The Trojans embark on their final two-game road swing of the season, beginning at Wingate on Wednesday. Tip-off at Cuddy Arena is slated for 7:30 p.m.
