Men Oust Piedmont by 8

Cameron Martin
Cameron Martin

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. - The N.C. Wesleyan College Men's Basketball team held off a second half rally by West Division foe Piedmont College (Ga.) to oust the Lions 86-78 at home Saturday afternoon.

Piedmont got out to a 32-23 lead midway through the first half before the Bishops closed the half on a 18-3 run with junior guard Cameron Martin's three at the buzzer adding the exclamation point to the run. Wesleyan ended up shooting 57 percent from the field overall in the first half led by Martin's 14 points. Martin would go on to finish the game with a season-high 16 points on 4 of 5 shooting from three along with 4 boards and 3 assists.

Wesleyan withstood a late rally by the Lions by making their free throws down the stretch with sophomore guard Damon McDowell going 11 of 12 from the line to finish with 21 points while also adding a block and 3 assists.

The Bishops took the second half 45-43 while they shot 53 percent for the game overall and 44 percent from three while making 18 of 22 free throws whereas Piedmont made 40 percent of their threes while making 50.8 percent of their shots.  

Junior center A.J. Frye had a nice game again as well scoring 18 points on 7 of 9 shooting with a team-best 7 rebounds while senior forward Robert Wilson also added 15 points while going perfect from three-point range. Junior Forward Mitch Layton and sophomore guard Josh Covington also combined for 11 points while senior guard Chris Braswell added 4 assists.

NCWC improves to 11-2 overall and 4-1 in the USA South with the win while Piedmont falls to 0-12 and 0-6 in conference.

The Bishops are right back in action tomorrow to host Brevard College at 1 PM.