Men's Basketball Suffers Close Loss at Home to Lions

COLUMBIA, Ky - Lindsey Wilson's men's basketball team falls at home in a physical battle with Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) on Saturday afternoon, 62-50. A second half offensive decline by the Blue Raiders and free throw advantage for the Lions dropped LWC to 1-4 in conference play.

Payton Cundiff picked up where he left off the last time out with another 20-point performance making it his second consecutive game. Cundiff had a team high of 22 points followed by Elijah Jordan with 12 and 10 from Johrdon Mumford respectively.

Cundiff got things going early with two straight threes for the Blue Raiders to start the game and finished the half with 13 points. The first ten minutes of play was pretty even with both teams trying to establish a physical presence inside as 16 fouls were called in the first half alone, eight from each team.

A couple stops by LWC sparked a 11-3 run with just about six minutes remaining in a slow paced half. Lindsey Wilson also had the upper edge inside the paint leading Freed-Hardeman 14-6. The Blue Raiders outplayed the Lions enough to retain a 29-22 lead going into halftime.

The second half was a shift in pace as Freed-Hardeman came out on a run of their own as they capitalized on LWC turnovers. The Lions led the Blue Raiders in points off turnovers in this matchup 13-5. FHU took their first lead since the first half to go up 43-42 with 9:40 to go as momentum began to shift in favor of the Lions.

Lindsey Wilson did not let things slip away and stayed in the battle to exchange lead changes throughout the half. Ten total lead changes were accounted for between the two and it came down to the wire. The Lions were able to take the lead to go up 60-59 after a go-ahead layup with 35.7 seconds remaining. The go-ahead bucket and two late free throws by the Lions went on to seal the game as LWC could not convert on a few great looks at the basket down the stretch which led to them falling 62-60.

The Blue Raiders are back out on home floor next Thursday, Dec. 8 when they take on No. 8-ranked Georgetown College (Ky.) at 7:30 p.m. CT.