If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. If the Covenant Scots basketball team needed a rallying cry for its NCAA DIII Provisional Tournament game against Berry College this might be it.
Covenant, who had been defeated by the Vikings two previous times this year, erased a 13-point second half deficit to claim a 58-54 win and a trip to the championship game Saturday afternoon against Birmingham Southern.
Three Scots scored in double figures, led by a healthy Kacey Chambers who scored a team-high 15 points. Callum Sears had 13 points of his own, including two crucial free throws in the final 5 seconds of the game. Chase Foster chipped in 11 points and 3 assists for the Scots (6-20).
Covenant trailed 22-9 with 11:15 left in the first half after Berry's Mac Whalen buried a three-pointer. The Scots cut that deficit down to just 2 by going on a 15-4 scoring run that was capped by a Foster triple making it 26-24. But Berry would score the final 6 points of the half to go into the break up 32-24.
Berry pushed their lead back to double figures early in the second half on a layup by Jonathan Abrams to make it 34-24. Whalen hit another three-pointer that again gave the Vikings their biggest lead of the game at 43-30 with 13:50 left in the game.
But Covenant would not give up and the Scots would go on one of their biggest scoring runs of the year. The Scots went on a 15-0 run over the course of 6:23 to grab a 45-43 lead. Chambers capped off the run by hitting a jumper to give Covenant their first lead since very early in the first half.
After Berry had briefly retaken the lead at 46-45, Sears hit two free throws, and Chambers connected on a three-pointer to give Covenant their biggest lead at 50-46 with 5:45 left. Sears then made a layup with just under 3 minutes to play to put the Scots up by 5 at 55-50. Up 56-54, Covenant held off on a Berry possession where the Vikings took 5 shots before turning the ball over with 5 seconds left. Sears then hit his two free throws to seal the win for the Scots.
Tim Miles led Berry (15-11) in scoring with 23 points, including 6-10 from behind the three-point arc. David Holloman was the only other player in double figures for the Vikings as he added 13 points.
Covenant advances to the championship game against Birmingham Southern, who defeated Franciscan University 92-51 on Friday. Tip-off is set for 2:00pm.
