Covenant College

SEWANEE, Tenn. -- Covenant men's basketball got 32 points from Noah Pence and won the turnover battle once again as they used a late second half surge to upend Oglethorpe 96-89 at their first game of the Lon Varnell Classic in Sewanee on Friday evening.

Pence's 32 points led all scorers and marked his second straight 30-plus point output, while Korbin Long added 17, Bolton Born 16, and Thomas Malcolm 11 and eight boards off the bench. Pierce Smith led in rebounds with nine and assists with four.

In the first half, the Scots' (2-1) first run began at the 16:22 mark, as they rattled off seven straight to turn an 8-7 deficit into a 14-8 lead, with Pence scoring five of those seven. They followed that with an 8-3 run a few minutes later, capped by a James White layup, to lead by eight.

The rest of the half was close, however, as the Stormy Petrels (0-2) overcame their deficit to make it tight, but Pence would hit a triple with 13 seconds left in the half to put Covenant up 47-45 at half.

In the early second half, it was Oglethorpe's turn for a run, as they used an 8-0 run to lead by seven with 14:24 to play. However, six straight Covenant points, concluded by a Cole Carroll tip-in, brought it back down to one. 

Both teams traded small runs for the next large portion of the half, with neither team leading by more than five. Then, with 5:11 to play, Long scored three straight, followed by a three by Zach Amonett, to take a nine-point lead with 3:44 to go.

They would hold on from there, not letting the Stormy Petrels creep any closer than four the rest of the way, as Long hit a final free throw to cap off the scoring.

Kam Stone led Oglethorpe with 18 points, while Carter Watkins added nine boards.

UP NEXT

The Scots take on Sewanee tomorrow at 5 p.m. to wrap up their time on Monteagle.

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