Men's Basketball Ends Regular Season with Senior Day Win Over Reinhardt

ATHENS, Tenn.- The men's basketball team were in action for the final time in the regular season on Saturday. The honored their seniors on their final home game of the regular season before facing the Reinhardt University Eagles in an Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) contest. 

Amauri Young and Ty Hurst made the first baskets of the game, giving the Bulldogs a 4-0 lead. Reinhardt took over the lead before a Kobe Pride layup tied the game 6-6. The close game between the two conference foes saw another tie at 11-11 and 13-13. The second tie was broken by free throws made by Luke Burrows while Darius Rozier broke another tie to make the score 17-15. With under 10 minutes left the in the first half, Reinhardt led 20-19. Peyton West gave the team back the lead with his layup moving the score to 21-20, a lead they held on to for several minutes. A dunk by Ty Hurst made the score 36-30 as the team continued to lead. By the halftime buzzer though, the score was tied 42-42 after a Young layup at the buzzer.

TWU took the lead out halftime, seeing their lead move to 53-49 on a Burrows layup with 15:53 remaining in the game. A minute later, Keshawn McPherson moved the lead to six points with his free throws and Young's three-point basket made the score 58-49. With 13:30 on the clock, the Bulldogs took their first double-digit lead of the game, going ahead 60-49 on a West layup. The comfortable lead maintained for Tennessee Wesleyan as a Stratton Lovvorn three-pointer pushed the team ahead 77-61, their largest lead of the game. The momentum changed though as a cold spell allowed Reinhardt to go on a 17-1 run to tie the game 78-78 with 3:49 remaining. West broke the tie with his three-point basket and a layup by Hurst along with six made free throws by Young helped TWU hold on to a 90-87 win.

Young had a career-high 23 points, West had a career-high 16 points, Hurst had 14 points, Rozier added 12 points, and Burrows had a career-high 9 points in the game. 

The win moved the team's record to 11-14 overall and 11-13 in the AAC, and clinched the No. 8 seed in the AAC Tournament. The team will face the No. 9 seed Montreat College in the opening round of the AAC Tournament on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m., in Kingsport, Tenn.