Lions pounced early, ultimately fall to Wingate

MARS HILL, N.C. – The Mars Hill men's basketball team dropped their second contest against Wingate this season, 77-60, in Stanford Arena Saturday evening.

A rowdy, raucous crowd helped motivate the Lions to a 12-6 lead in the first six minutes of the contest. Bennett Wilson had five of the Lions' points followed closely by Vernon Jackson who added four. Coming off of the timeout and with just over 10 minutes remaining in the half, the Lions continued to pressure offensively, extending their lead to nine.

With under five minutes left, the Bulldogs took their first lead of the game off of two consecutive free throws from Marco Haskins. Wingate held a 24-23 lead and extended it to four on their next possession with a 3-pointer from Zeriq Lolar. The Lions would concede six of the next eight points before a layup from Nassyr Daniel would cut the lead to six points.

Wilson added a layup in the dying seconds, but only to be answered back by a controversial layup from Devarious Christian in the final tick of the first half. Wingate carried a 35-29 advantage heading into the second.

Christian ended the half with four points and a half-high nine rebounds. Lolar led the Bulldogs with 13 points in the opening 20 minutes.

Wilson and Jackson paced the Lions' offense with nine and eight points, respectively. Justen Hartfield pulled down five rebounds and added three points.

Vernon Jackson opened the second half on fire for the Lions, scoring six of Mars Hill's nine points. However, despite the strong offensive performance, Wingate would continue to answer back with baskets of their own, led by Lolar's six points on back-to-back 3-pointers.

Mars Hill still trailed by six with 11:06 remaining in the contest, but in the next 3:36 of the game, Wingate would extend their lead to 13 points, quieting the home crowd. The lead ballooned up to 22 with under four minutes remaining.

Brandon Reeves scored five points in the final minute to give the Lions a bit of life, but was too little, too late as Wingate came away with the 77-60 victory.

Lolar finished with 27 points to lead all players, shooting 10-of-18 from the field, including seven threes. Haskins ended the game with a double-double, scoring 10 and collecting 10 rebounds. Kerigan Farley added 14 points.

Jackson led the Lions with 16 points, shooting 8-of-12 from the field. Brandon Watkins pulled down a team-high eight rebounds to go along with eight points. Wilson finished the game with nine points, five rebounds and four assists.

Wingate improves to 9-9 (6-4 SAC) on the season, while Mars Hill drops their 10^th straight to fall to 2-16 (0-11 SAC).

Mars Hill takes on Carson-Newman on Wednesday, January 24 in Stanford Arena. Game is scheduled for an 8 p.m. tip-off.