LaGRANGE, Ga. -- The Covenant men's basketball team fell in its regular season finale 83-68 at LaGrange on Saturday evening in USA South action. The game was originally scheduled to start at 2 p.m., but poor road conditions in the Chattanooga area prevented Covenant from making the trip until later in the day.

Covenant (9-16, 7-7 USA South) finishes at .500 in conference play, but must wait until Sunday afternoon to see its fate for qualifying for the USA South tournament. The top eight teams in the final conference standings earn a berth and the Scots are part of a group of teams that could end up with identical conference records forcing tiebreaker scenarios.

Colton McGriff scored 10 of his 14 points in the first half and grabbed five rebounds to lead the Scots. TJ Cox had nine points and two assists, while Chris Boyd added eight points and five rebounds in the loss. Nate Frierson contributed five assists.

Covenant got off to a nice start in the first half leading 15-10 after a Will Portlock layup with 10:38 left. LaGrange would soon catch fire from the field and the host Panthers rattled off a 15-0 scoring run to grab a 38-23 lead with two minutes before halftime. LaGrange took a 40-28 lead into the break.

In the second half, Covenant cut its deficit to seven at 47-40 after a Robby Bell 3-pointer with 14:28 remaining. LaGrange's Justyn Olson made 3-pointers in consecutive possessions to stretch the Panthers' lead to 53-40 and LaGrange wouldn't look back the rest of the way.

Mark Wagner scored a game-high 27 points on the strength of seven 3-pointers. Olson added 15 points, while Nick Mitchell and Tymon Enwereama had 14 and 11 points, respectively. LaGrange (14-11, 7-7 USA South) made 12-of-20 3-pointers on the day and shot 44.4 percent (24-of-54) from the field.

Be sure to follow the Scots all season long on athletics.covenant.edu and on social media at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for up-to-date scores, news and other information.