LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, Ga. - Asbury was Covenant's final opponent to play in the first round of conference games as the two went head-to-head on Tuesday night. The Scots did a bunch of things right throughout the game, but they let the Eagles hang around for too long before they made clutch plays down the stretch to take back a win to Kentucky. 

Final: Covenant 96, Asbury 99
Records: Covenant (7-11, 2-4 CCS), Asbury (6-14, 2-5 CCS)

FIRST HALF:

• Covenant came out firing, scoring the first 11 points of the game, all of which came from Logan Patterson and Ethan Parker. 
• The Scots kept moving forward, knocking down two more 3-pointers followed by an inside basket from Colt Donley to move ahead 19-7. 
• A 3-pointer from Donley gave Covenant a 15-point advantage with 10:45 remaining in the half. 
• Pierce Smith got a bucket to go inside to put the Scots ahead 34-18, which would be their biggest lead of the night. 
• Later in the half, Covenant went scoreless for nearly five minutes, allowing Asbury to crawl all the way back and move ahead 39-38. 
• Covenant scored five points in the final 36 seconds, capped off by a Luuk Dusek triple, to move back ahead at the break, 45-42. 

SECOND HALF:

• The Scots scored nine of the first 11 points out of halftime to push their lead back to doubled-digits at 54-44. 
• A quick 7-0 run, highlighted by an alley-oop dunk from Donley saw Covenant move up 63-49. 
• Covenant and Asbury traded baskets for the next several minutes as an inside basket by Dusek put the score at 79-67. 
• A little while later, Asbury went on to score six points in a row to cut the Covenant lead to 81-77. 
• With 4:51 remaining, Cole Caroll got a basket to go inside to keep Covenant's lead at four points. 
• A 5-0 run for Asbury, capped off by a triple, gave it its first lead of the game at 88-87. 
• Pierce Smith responded with a second-chance basket to put Covenant back in front. 
• Another quick five points for Asbury, including a clutch 3-pointer late in the shot clock, put it in front 95-91 with 1:07 remaining. 
• Down three points with two seconds left, the Scots got a rebound off a missed free throw, but were unable to get a shot from deep off in time before the buzzer sounded. 

GAME NOTES: 

• Covenant moves to 2-5 all-time against Asbury.
• Patterson scored 21 points for the Scots on 6-of-14 shooting to lead the offensive attack. 
• Smith earned a double-double posting 11 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. He also had three blocks.
• Dusek and Donley each had 12 points for Covenant. 
• Cayden Lancaster for Asbury led all scorers with 24 points and also brought down 11 rounds for the double-double. 
• Covenant was 46.7% (35-75) from the field and 42.3% (11-26) from behind the 3-point line while Asbury was 54% (34-63) and 45.8% (11-24) in the same categories. 
• Both teams had 40 rebounds. 
• Covenant led for 35:40 of the 40-minute game. 

UP NEXT: Covenant travels to Belhaven on Saturday with tip-off scheduled for 5 p.m. EST/ 4 p.m. CST. 

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