ROME, Ga. -- Playing close games is something the Covenant Scots have gotten used to during this basketball season. Unfortunately, Covenant has not been on the winning side too often and that trend continued on Tuesday night as the Scots were beaten on the road by Berry College 61-56. It is the ninth time this season that Covenant has lost by fewer than 10 points.
Covenant ends the regular season with a record of 5-20, but even with all the losses head coach Kyle Taylor sees a lot of improvement in his young basketball team:
"The positive is that we're really battling with people every night and competing in almost every game we play. I have had several people remind me that the first step in building a program is to be competitive in every game, and then you can start to expect to win some of those games. This year has definitely been a big improvement from a year ago."
On this night, Covenant had to dig themselves out of a 17-point hole in the first half just to get within striking distance of the Vikings. Down 39-22 with 3:48 left in the half, Covenant went on a 12-0 run to close the half and cut the Berry lead to just 5 at 39-34. Callum Sears scored 10 points during the streak, including a layup in the waning seconds of the half.
The Scots would remain close in the second half and only trailed by 2 with 3:54 left in the game. A pair of free throws from Rosbie Mutcherson tied the game at 56 at the 3:01 mark. But Covenant could not get another shot to fall and Berry's Kendall Gadie put the Vikings up for good at 58-56 with a jumper a little over one minute left. Berry would hit just enough free throws down the stretch to secure the 5 point victory.
Callum Sears continued his hot shooting, going 10-19 from the field for a game-high 27 points. It is the second consecutive game that Sears has scored in excess of 27 points, and over the last four games, the sophomore is averaging 25.8 PPG. Zarome Lakey finished with 9 points and 3 assists while Jon DeVries chipped in with 6 points and 6 rebounds.
Berry (15-10) was led by Tim Miles who scored 19 points. David Holloman added 11 rebounds and 4 points for the Vikings.
With the regular season over, the Scots will turn their attention to the NCAA DIII Provisional Tournament being played March 4-5 in Steubenville, Ohio. Franciscan University of Steubenville will host the tournament that will also feature Berry College and Birmingham Southern.
