Men's Basketball falls victim to Saints' second-half charge

GAFFNEY, S.C. – After holding a nine-point lead at halftime, the Catawba College men's basketball team was outscored 53-37 in the final 20 minutes to fall at Limestone, 93-86, on Saturday afternoon at the Timken Center.

TEAM STATS

- Catawba (11-8, 9-8 SAC) swished 45.3% of its field goal attempts compared to Limestone's (8-10, 5-9 SAC) 43.3% mark

- Nearly half of the Saints' shots were from three-point range, working in their favor with a 14-for-28 (50.0%) performance while the visitors relied on triples slightly less at 11-of-23 (47.8%)

- Free throws ultimately made the largest difference as Catawba went 17-for-22 (77.3%), while Limestone had a 27-for-35 (77.1%) day that included 23 points in the second half alone

- Catawba crashed the boards with 19 offensive rebounds, besting the Saints by a 43-34 margin as the visitors led 34-20 in paint scoring

- Held to a season-low two steals, the Catawba Indians lost the turnover battle 13-7 and suffered a 25-5 deficit on fast breaks

INDIVIDUAL STATS

- Nick Walker recorded his third double-double of the campaign using 22 points and 12 rebounds, going 8-for-11 for another fine outing by the nation's ninth-most efficient shooter

- Justin Banks poured in a season-high 19 points, logging a perfect 6-for-6 performance at the free-throw line, while chipping in six rebounds and two assists

- Chase Daniel netted nine points, his career-best scoring total, and paced the Catawba Indians with four helpers

- Swishing 3-of-4 from range, Jashaun Hawkins also collected nine points in just 10 minutes of action

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Half

- Catawba opened the contest with buckets from Walker and a Montraivis White three-ball, but Limestone found the twine on its next three possessions to knot the ledger at 7-7

- Eight points in under three minutes from Trevon Payton brought the Saints back within two, rivaling a pair of three-point plays by Banks and Walker's back-to-back scores to make it 23-19 Catawba at the under-12 media break

- Following dueling triples by Yaturi Bolton and Kris Robinson, both teams were deprived of a field goal in separate four-minute periods ahead of a high-scoring end to the half

- The hosts went 3-for-4 from long range in the last 3:44, while Hawkins found paydirt on a pair of threes as six more points in the paint helped Catawba take a 49-40 lead into the locker room

Second Half

- The Catawba Indians shot out of a cannon with a 7-2 run before the squads traded blows, combining for 10 points (5-5) in 39 seconds featuring a Banks three and Walker two

- After facing a 14-point deficit, Limestone leveraged volume and accuracy at the charity stripe to wind the gap down to 72-67 as Daniel fired back with a three-pointer

- Led by eight points from Hughes and a defensive effort that held the visitors without a field goal, the Saints surged into the driver's seat using a 18-5 swing over the course of five minutes, putting Catawba behind 85-80 with 3:03 left on the clock

- Down 87-84 with the ball in the last minute, Catawba missed twice but offensive rebounds allowed White to connect with Walker for an alley-oop jam

- Isayah Owens went 6-for-6 at the charity stripe as the Saint defense refused to concede another point, chalking up a 93-86 final score

UP NEXT

The blue and white begin a four-game homestand at Goodman Arena on Wednesday, Jan. 29 against Newberry at 7:30 p.m.