BANNER ELK, N.C. – Lees-McRae men's basketball moves to the Atlantic Casualty Conference Carolinas Men's Basketball Championship Quarterfinals after defeating No. 12 North Greenville, 79-75, on Monday evening.
Nico Ashley posted the fourth-most blocks in NCAA Division II this season with nine and
Ja'Quavian Florence led the Bobcats in the scoring column with 20 points.
THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: No. 6
Lees-McRae – 79; No. 12 North Greenville – 75
LOCATION: McNair & Debi Tornow Court – Banner Elk, North Carolina
RECORDS: Lees-McRae (19-10/11-7), North Greenville (11-18/4-14)
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Timon Jones opened the scoring for the Bobcats with a jumper, but North Greenville followed on their first possession with a basket from Jacob Brown.
- NGU took an early 9-6 lead after a made jumper from Max Topham, but Lees-McRae answered with a 7-0 scoring run to take the 13-9 lead with 12:45 left in the first half.
- The Bobcats extended their lead to 28-19 with a made jumper from LJ Rogers and held a 10-point advantage over the Crusaders at the halftime break.
- North Greenville quickly cut the deficit to five points in the early stages of the second half. Nico Ashley buried a three at the 17:12 mark and Florence collected a layup to push the lead back to 10 points in favor of Lees-McRae.
- Jaylin Stewart hit a running layup with 11:51 remaining in the half as Lees-McRae held the 13-point lead. Cadarrius Sowell trimmed the lead back to single digits after a three for North Greenville with 3:23 left in regulation.
- Lees-McRae continued to maintain its lead through the last few minutes of the contest and collected the 79-75 win over North Greenville on Monday night.
- Florence paced the Bobcats with 20 points on 9-15 shooting and 2-2 from three-point range. Timon Jones followed with 15 points in 28 minutes of action and Stewart chipped in 12 points off the bench.
- Ashley recorded a career-high nine blocks to go along with nine points and six rebounds in the start. Jeremy Golson had eight points on 2-5 from the beyond-the-arc.
- Lees-McRae shot an impressive 54.4% (31-57) from the field with eight three-pointers.
- The Bobcats earned their 19th victory of the season which is the most in program history since 2017-18 when Lees-McRae tallied 23 wins. The Bobcats concluded the 2017-2018 season with the Conference Carolinas Tournament title on the McNair & Debi Tornow Court.
FOR THE CRUSADERS:
- After scoring a career-high 28 points in last night's victory, Cadarrius Sowell led all scorers with 23 points in 34 minutes off the bench for North Greenville.
- Caleb Williams scored 16 points in 36 minutes of action for the Crusaders and Topham rounded out NGU in double-digit scoring with 11.
UP NEXT:
Lees-McRae men's basketball will face No. 3 Chowan on Friday, March 8 at 1:30 p.m. in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The game will be the second game of the quarterfinal round in the 2024 Atlantic Casualty Conference Carolinas Championship.
For more information on Lees-McRae Athletics, follow the Bobcats on X (@LMCBobcats), on Facebook (Lees-McRae Athletics), and on Instagram (leesmcraeathletics).
