Box score
BANNER ELK, N.C. - The Lees-McRae College Bobcats rallied from
down 14 points with less than a minute to play, but came up short,
77-74, against the visiting North Greenville Crusaders Tuesday
night in a nonconference men's basketball game in Williams Gym.
After North Greenville's Paul Harrison made a layup with 52
seconds to play to give the Crusaders a 75-61 lead, the Bobcats
mounted a comeback. Jesse Hoots was fouled following the inbound
and knocked down both free throws to trim the lead. On the North
Greenville inbound, Sean Hardin forced a steal that lead to a
Jeremy Helms three. Again the Bobcats forced a turnover, this time
Hoots came up with the ball and found Reshon Benjamin for the three
to cut the lead to six, 75-69. The Bobcat pressure forced another
turnover on the inbound on another Hoots steal and another three by
Helms. The Bobcats forced their fourth straight turnover on the
inbound leading to a Benjamin reverse layup to make it a one-point
game, 75-74. The Crusaders called a timeout to help the ball in,
but the Bobcat pressure forced the Crusaders to burn their final
timeout of the game with 5 seconds remaining. After the timeout
the Crusaders got the ball in forcing the Bobcats to foul with 3.8
seconds remaining. The foul sent Luke Lattimer to the line, and he
knocked down both free throws to give the Crusaders the 77-74
lead. On the Bobcat inbound Jesse Hoots got an open look at a
three from just inside half court, but the attempt came up short
give the Crusaders the win.
The game started with the Crusaders sprinting out of the gates
to a 13-point lead, 18-5, just eight minutes into the game.
However, the Bobcats would go on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 18-14
three minutes later. North Greenville answered with a 14-0 run to
take a 32-14 lead, for their largest lead of the game, and carried
a 38-25 lead into the intermission.
Following the break the Crusaders pushed their lead back to 18,
47-29, with 17;48 to play in the half, but the Bobcats would
scramble and cut the lead to six, 53-47, with just over ten minutes
to go. Six minutes later the lead was again in double-digits as
the Crusaders held a 66-52 advantage with just over four minutes to
play that lead to the climatic finish.
Helms came off the bench for the Bobcats to score a team-high 21
points going 8-for-13 from the floor and 6-of-8 from behind the
three-point line. Sam Youse followed with nine points, and Benjamin
and Josh Kurtz added eight points apiece. Kurts was 1-of-2 from
the floor and a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe. Anthony
Johnson paced the Bobcats with four assists, and Hardin and Hoots
had a team-high four steals.
For the Crusaders, Harrison notched a double 35 points, on
15-of-21 from the floor and 5-of-6 from the free throw line, and
grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. Harrison also led the team with
three assists and two blocked shots. Lattimer had 18 points and
was the only other Crusader with double-digit points.
As a team, the Crusaders were 65 percent from the floor and 58
percent from three, but only made 54 percent of their free throws.
The Bobcats were 32 percent from the floor and from behind the
arc. They also knocked down 77 percent of their free throws.
Lees-McRae will host Coker College Saturday at 4 p.m. in a
Conference Carolinas game for their next game.
