Men's Basketball Holds Off Warren Wilson

MARS HILL, N.C.- The Mars Hill men's basketball team defeated Warren Wilson 86-81 on Monday night in Stanford Arena. Mars Hill improves to 5-2 overall while Warren Wilson falls to 6-6.

Mars Hill had four players in double figures, led by Jalen Witherspoon's 23 points. Kevin Haynes scored 15 points, followed by reigning South Atlantic Conference Player of the Week Patrick Monroe with 14 and Isaiah Cuthbertson with 13. Cuthbertson pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds, while Valentine Bauer led the Lions with five assists.

Justin Gonyea scored a game-high 29 points to lead the Owls. Timmy Johnson scored 17 points and pulled down a team-leading six rebounds.

Neither team led by more than four points for the first 10 minutes of the opening half as the Owls led 23-20. Warren Wilson went on a 14-4 run to take a 37-24 lead with 5:14 to play. A Thomas Anderson layup sparked an 11-0 run as the Lions pulled to within two, 37-35, with 2:13 remaining. Witherspoon's layup with 86 seconds to play in the half tied the score at 39. Gonyea sank a 3-pointer with 1:02 to play, with Bauer providing the Lion answer on a layup with 48 seconds to play to make the score 42-41. Haynes had a chance to give Mars Hill the lead going into the break but his 3-pointer with six seconds left clanked off the iron.

Witherspoon evened the contest at 44 with a layup with 18:24 to play in the second half. Gonyea answered with a 3-pointer and a layup to give Warren Wilson a 49-44 advantage. Warren Wilson led by no more than four points until Haynes tied the game for the Lions on a layup with 9:54 on the scoreboard. The Owls answered with a Johnson 3-pointer and led until a Witherspoon one-handed dunk gave Mars Hill a 64-63 lead with just under nine minutes to play. A Haynes layup with 6:23 to play gave Mars Hill a 71-69 lead, an advantage they wouldn't relinquish the rest of the way. Warren Wilson trimmed the lead to one thanks to Gonyea's final bucket of the night with 2:53 to play before the Lions closed out the contest by making eight of their final nine free throws.

The contest featured nine ties and eight lead changes. Warren Wilson outshot the Lions 48.4 percent to 37.9 percent, with the Owls shooting 51.6 percent in the first half. Mars Hill was 28-for-38 (73.7 percent) from behind the free throw line, while Warren Wilson was 10-for-17 (58.8 percent). The Lions held a 43-40 advantage on the glass.

Mars Hill returns to league play on Saturday, hosting Wingate at 4 p.m.