Tuesday, November 28th, 2006

Men's Basketball Team Narrowly Misses Upset Of Nationally-Ranked Southern Poly

The Piedmont College men's basketball team narrowly missed an upset of the nation's 12th ranked NAIA Division-I team tonight as the Lions fell 72-68 at Southern Polytechnic State University in Atlanta, GA. Piedmont had a chance to tie or win on the final possession only to see their upset bid come up short.

Despite SPSU opening the game with a 10-0 run, the undersized Lions battled toe-to-toe with the nationally-ranked Hornets. PC used a run of their own to send the game into halftime tied at 30-30.

Southern Poly again opened up a nine-point lead early in the second-half only to see Piedmont storm back again. After Piedmont's final possession SPSU scored an uncontested layup at the buzzer to make the four-point margin.

Piedmont shot a season-low 3-19 (16%) from behind the three-point line but balanced that out by shooting 17-21 (81%) from the free throw line.

Jake Baldwin led all scorers with a game-high 24 and completed his third straight double-double with 10 rebounds. Tyler Whitlock contributed with a season-high 16 points to go along with seven rebounds, and a team-high four steals.

Piedmont returns to action on Friday, December 1st and Saturday, December 2nd, when the Lions travel to Rocky Mount, NC to take part in the Roger Taylor Invitational hosted by NC Wesleyan College. Piedmont will take on Wesley (DE) College on Friday night at 8:00.