Bulldogs Pull Away From Lions in Second Half

MARS HILL, N.C.- The Wingate men's basketball team used a 13-0 second half run to pull away from Mars Hill en route to a 74-60 victory in Stanford Arena. Wingate improves to 6-1 on the season and 4-0 in the South Atlantic Conference while Mars Hill falls to 5-3 overall and 1-3 in league play.

Patrick Monroe led the Lions with 10 points, followed by nine points each from Isaiah Cuthbertson, Jalen Witherspoon and Brandon Watkins. Watkins had a team-leading nine rebounds.

Wingate was led by Ryan Daye with 18 points and 12 points each from Isiah Cureton and Zeriz Lolar.

Wingate opened the game on a 10-0 run and held a game-high 12 point lead, 18-6, with 13:07 to play in the half. The Bulldogs led 27-16 with 6:47 to play before the Lions began a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to 27-25 following a Witherspoon 3-pointer. A Daye jumper pushed the Wingate lead back to six with 31 seconds to play before a Monroe jumper with five seconds left made the halftime score 34-30 in favor of Wingate.

Following a Witherspoon layup that cut the Lion deficit to five, 39-34, with 16:18 remaining, Wingate answered with a pair of free throws and a Griffin layup to extend their lead to 43-34 with just over 15 minutes to play. Trailing by six with 11:49 remaining, Watkins sank a free throw followed by a Michael Carson 3-pointer to bring the Lions to within two points, 45-43. Lolar made a pair of free throws with Anderson answering with a layup to keep the Lions within a pair at 47-45. Wingate went on a 13-0 run for a 60-45 lead with 6:58 to play to take control of the contest as the Bulldogs led by no fewer than 11 points the rest of the way.

The teams were even on the glass with 22 rebounds each. Wingate outshot Mars Hill 54.3 percent to 36.1 percent and scored 13 fast break points compared to two for the Lions.

Mars Hill travels to Winthrop on Tuesday night for an exhibition game at 7 p.m. The Lions return to SAC action next Saturday at Coker with a 4 p.m. start.