Late rally by Lions falls short in comeback bid, lose to Coker

MARS HILL, N.C. – The Mars Hill men's basketball team fell to Coker Saturday evening, 92-84, in Stanford Arena.

The Lions opened the contest on a 6-0 run, all from Vernon Jackosn, before Khalil Halls' first 3-pointer on the day cut the lead in half. Luke Van-Rijn answered back for the Lions with a three of his own. Four straight points from Donte Samuels and another three from Halls gave Coker their first lead of the afternoon with 15:05 remaining in the half.

Both teams traded the lead back and forth until Halls' third triple in the first seven minutes gave the Cobras a 16-13 edge. The Lions would keep the deficit to within five over the next several minutes before a 5-0 run would give Mars Hill the lead with less than seven minutes to play. Brandon Reeves had four of the five points.

Tied at 30 with just over four minutes remaining, Halls drained another 3-pointer to reclaim the lead and kick off a 13-2 run to hold a 43-32 advantage with under three minutes remaining. Mars Hill would outscore the Cobras 6-5 to pull within 10 heading into halftime.

Halls led all players with 17 points, shooting 5-of-8 from beyond the arc. Jake Barrett had eight points, eight rebounds and three assists.  Austin Gilyard and Vernon Jackson each had eight points to lead the Lions. Luke Van-Rijn had seven points and a team-high seven rebounds. Bennett Wilson led all players with eight assists in the first 20 minutes.

Opening the second half, each team countered with baskets of their own to keep the 10 point deficit. With 16:43 remaining in the half, Coker began a 10-0 run to double their lead with just over 15 minutes left in the contest. A resilient Lions team erased that run with a 10-0 run themselves, led by Gilyard's five points. A 3-pointer from Marquis Green ended the run momentarily until layups from Brandon Watkins and Justen Hartfield cut the lead to single digits.

With under 10 minutes remaining in the contest, Gilyard was able to draw the Lions within eight points, but a Coker 10-0 run ballooned the lead back to 18 points. Trailing 90-78 with 1:32 remaining, the Lions launched one more comeback bid.

Jackson pulled down a rebound and put it back to pull within 10 with just over a minute remaining. On the ensuing inbounds pass, Wilson stole the ball and laid it in to narrow the deficit to single digits with 1:12 left in the contest. Despite the last minute gasp, the Lions were unable to pull their way back to within striking distance and fell 92-84 to the Cobras.

Gilyard set a new career-high to lead all players with 25 points on the evening, shooting 8-of-18 from the floor, including five 3-pointers. Jackson ended the game with 14 points and seven rebounds. Wilson had a double-double with 10 points and 11 assists.

Halls six 3-pointers helped him lead the Cobras with 22 points. Barrett's 19 points and 10 rebounds gave him a double-double. Larry Cooper provided 14 poitns and seven rebounds.

Mars Hill drops to 3-18 (2-13 SAC) while Coker improves to 9-13 (6-8 SAC).

The Lions travel to Tusculum on Wednesday, February 7 for an 8 p.m. contest.