St. Andrew’s Marcus Baines (pictured) scored a season-high eight points in the Knights upset of the 10th-ranked Crusaders.
Garst had game-high totals of 24 points and 14 rebounds, while Jackson bucketed 21 points and pulled down eight rebounds as St. Andrews successfully avenged a 24-point loss to the Abbey from back on January 21. Garst – a 2010 ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District® selection – has 12 double-doubles on the season.
Jackson put the Knights ahead with a made jumper with 64 seconds left and St. Andrews held on for its first road win of the season in its second to last regular season game away from home. SAPC snaps an eight-game losing streak after gutting out the tough win in its third game in four day, improving to 7-15 overall and 3-12 in the conference. The seventh victory of the season moves St. Andrews’ win total past last year’s total of six.
The Crusaders, who just moved into the NCAA Division II Southeast Region poll a day earlier, stumble to 11-11 overall and 7-9 in the league. Richard Barbee scored a game-high 25 points for Belmont Abbey.
The contest featured five ties and 16 lead changes as the two teams traded the lead for the opening five minutes before the Crusaders rushed out to a 13-point lead on the strength of a 20-6 run over the course of 15 minutes to open up a 26-13 advantage. Both teams exchanged baskets for the next couple of minutes until the Knights closed the gap to five, 37-32, at the half on a 15-6 run, which was punctuated by a buzzer-beating layup from freshman Domonique Holliday.
In the second half, Belmont Abbey built its lead back into double digits, growing it to as high as 11 points at 59-48 with 12:32 left, but the Knights began to chip away at the lead, exploding on a 19-7 run to give them their first lead since the early moments of the second half, a 67-66 edge with 5:47 left. After both teams exchanged baskets, Chad Patus gave the Abbey the lead again with a three-pointer. From there, the two teams exchanged leads for the next ten trips down the floor.
With the score deadlocked at 80 with 1:21 left in regulation, Patus hit the second of two free throws to push the Crusaders ahead 81-80, but the Knights countered with a Jackson field goal 17 seconds later to thrust the Knights ahead for good. A layup and a made free throw by sophomore Micah Baines extended the lead to four, but a jumper by Tyshawn Good with five seconds lelf cut it back to two. After an Abbey foul, sophomore Kurt Fenderbosch nailed two free throws with three seconds left to provide the winning margin.
Sophomore guard Antonio Moffitt, who came up with a big steal for the Knights in the final minute, scored 19 points on a sizzling 8-of-10 accuracy. The Knights shot the ball well throughout, firing at 51.4-percent (37-of-72) precision.
SAPC’s starting five accounted for 89.7-percent of the squad’s points with Baines netting a season-high eight points and junior Marcus Connor posting six points. Fenderbosch scored seven of the Knights nine bench points while handing out a team-high four assists; Connor swatted away a game-high four blocks; and Connor and Moffitt yanked down seven and five rebounds, respectively.
Patus and Harvin Council both recorded 16 points for the Abbey while Kyle Phillips was the fourth Crusader to score in double figures with 10 points.
St. Andrews will try and knock off its second straight regionally ranked foe when the Knights host No. 5 Anderson University in Conference Carolinas action today at 4 p.m.
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