LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN -- With Christmas break upon Covenant students, the Scots basketball team played their final game before taking an extended break themselves. Visiting Greensboro College made life hard on the Scots as the Pride made six 3-pointers in the second half, and eight overall, to break away from Covenant and win 71-60.
With the loss, the Scots have now dropped five straight contests and their record falls to 4-6 on the season. Greensboro, meanwhile, improves to 6-3 for the year. The two schools faced each other last season with the Pride coming out on top 74-55 in that contest.
Early in the game Covenant looked sharp offensively. The Scots dished out five assists on their first six made field goals to go ahead 12-7 with just under 13 minutes left in the first half. The Pride then came back and grabbed a 26-20 edge after back-to-back layups from T.J. Holman and Luqman Tijani. The Scots used a 9-0 scoring run over the final 2:38 of the half to take a 29-26 lead into halftime. Joey Danek nailed a 3-pointer, Callum Sears and Jon DeVries combined for four free-throws, and T.J. Cox drained a short jumper to cap off the scoring outburst.
In the second half, Greensboro did not miss often. The Pride took a 32-31 lead with 18:04 remaining after a Damian Dixon layup and Greensboro would never look back. The visitors shot 65 percent (17-26) from the field, including six 3-pointers, in the second half alone. Covenant tried to hang in as they got as close as six points at 57-51 after a Colton McGriff free-throw, but the Scots would not get any closer than that.
DeVries and Danek each had 14 points to lead Covenant. Danek added nine rebounds, while DeVries had three assists and two blocked shots. McGriff scored 12 points on 4-for-9 shooting off the bench and Cox recorded five assists.
Greensboro was led by Dixon and his 18 point performance. Brock Moorman had 13 points and two blocked shots, while Tijani added 10 points and led the Pride with eight rebounds.
The Scots will now break for the Christmas holiday. Covenant will return to action on Dec. 30 and 31 when they travel to Virginia to take on Roanoke College and Ferrum College.
