MARYVILLE, Tenn. -- Coming off their first victory of the season, the Covenant Scots traveled to perennial Great South Athletic Conference power Maryville College on Saturday. Covenant put up a tremendous fight, but ultimately fell to the opposing Scots 88-76.
Covenant scored first in this one at the 19:29 mark of the first half when Callum Sears' layup put the Scots up 2-0. Maryville made sure that the two point lead would be Covenant's last of the game. Maryville widened their lead to 42-29 after a steal and dunk from Eryk Watson with 2:55 left in the half. Despite the 13-point deficit, Covenant put together a 7-2 scoring run to end the half that cut the Maryville lead to 44-36.
As they have done in past matchups with Covenant, Maryville put the foot on the accelerator to begin the second half. The Scots of Maryville moved their lead up to 63-43 just over five minutes into the half. Covenant would not go away easily this time, however, as they responded with an 18-4 run capped off by a Damien Chaney basket with 9:35 left in the game. Maryville proved again why they are the best team in the GSAC as they would not let Covenant get any closer and would cruise to the 12-point win.
Although it was a loss, Covenant head coach Kyle Taylor sees a lot of improvement in his squad. "As a team, we continue to take positive steps forward. We got more out of our offense than we have any other night. We got multiple back cuts for lay-ups. Our execution was better, we turned the ball over less, and we did all of that while still not shooting the ball well from the perimeter."
Covenant had four players in double digits in scoring led by Sears and Zarome Lakey who each scored 15. Chaney continued his solid play as he nearly had a double-double with 11 points and seven rebounds. "Damien Chaney rebounded the ball extremely well tonight (especially on the defensive end), and scored some big baskets to go with it," commented Taylor after the game. Sam Bowman chipped in 10 points with two blocks and two steals.
Maryville's Cory Cheek led all players with 27 points, including 7 three pointers. Watson contributed 21 points with Dustin Baxter pouring in 13 points off the bench. Donald Rucker had 17 rebounds to help Maryville (3-4) to a 45-34 rebounding advantage.
Covenant (1-5) returns home for a week of games beginning Tuesday, December 7 against Emory University at 7:00pm. The Scots will then host GSAC foes Piedmont (Thursday) and Huntingdon (Saturday) to end the week.
