St. Andrews’ Allan Taylor (24) and Reinhardt’s Antonio Spencer (11) jump for the opening tip-off of Saturday’s game.
                                 Photos| Brandon Hodge/ The Laurinburg Exchange

St. Andrews’ Allan Taylor (24) and Reinhardt’s Antonio Spencer (11) jump for the opening tip-off of Saturday’s game.

Photos| Brandon Hodge/ The Laurinburg Exchange

<p>St. Andrews’ Allan Taylor (24) is fouled by Reinhardt’s Antonio Spencer (navy blue) on a layup attempt during the first half of Saturday’s game.</p>
                                 <p>Photos| Brandon Hodge/ The Laurinburg Exchange</p>

St. Andrews’ Allan Taylor (24) is fouled by Reinhardt’s Antonio Spencer (navy blue) on a layup attempt during the first half of Saturday’s game.

Photos| Brandon Hodge/ The Laurinburg Exchange

<p>St. Andrews’ Caleb Brown (2) shoots a midrange jumper during the first half of Saturday’s game.</p>
                                 <p>Photos| Brandon Hodge/ The Laurinburg Exchange</p>

St. Andrews’ Caleb Brown (2) shoots a midrange jumper during the first half of Saturday’s game.

Photos| Brandon Hodge/ The Laurinburg Exchange

<p>St. Andrews’ Ameil Malone (5 in grey) guards Reinhardt’s Tyler Smith (5 in navy blue) on a shot attempt during the second half on Saturday’s game.</p>
                                 <p>Photos| Brandon Hodge/ The Laurinburg Exchange</p>

St. Andrews’ Ameil Malone (5 in grey) guards Reinhardt’s Tyler Smith (5 in navy blue) on a shot attempt during the second half on Saturday’s game.

Photos| Brandon Hodge/ The Laurinburg Exchange

LAURINBURG — Down by seven points with under two minutes to go, then, down by two with under a minute remaining; it seemed all too familiar for St. Andrews Knights (3-17, 1-16 Appalachian Athletic Conference) head coach Randy Hernandez.

On Jan. 25, when St. Andrews hosted Columbia International, the Knights trailed 81-74 with 1:33 left in the fourth quarter and 81-79 with 18 seconds to go. The same scenarios occurred on Saturday, when the Knights were down 78-71 with a minute remaining, then, behind 78-76 with 35 seconds left against the Reinhardt Eagles (12-10, 12-7 AAC).

And, although the Knights were down by 20 points at one time in the second half, their attempt to win from behind wouldn’t succeed, as they fell 82-78.

“It hurts,” Hernandez said. “We’re battling with what we’ve got, but down the long stretch, we can get a couple of wins here. We’ve just gotta stay positive. We’re battling the same X’s and O’s; we’ve gotta do better.”

Despite another difficult loss, Hernandez gave credit to Reinhardt, who shot 11-of-29 from beyond the arc and collected 45 total rebounds, for how well they played against his team.

“Reinhardt’s a good team,” Hernandez said. “They’re athletic, they’re big, they hit their 3s; they did their job.”

The Eagles were able to get off to a swift start with five straight points in the first 1:22 of the game. The Knights outscored the Eagles 10-6 throughout the next three minutes though and trailed only 11-10 at the 15:27 mark. The Knights fell behind 23-14 before making it 25-20 after a Quwan Barnes layup. The Knights, then, suffered their largest deficit of the game up to that point at 41-26 with 3:20 left in the half off a Brandon Barron jumper for Reinhardt. Four points by McRae and a 3-pointer by Brodie Clark produced a 7-2 stretch where the Knights outscored the Eagles. But, with two seconds left in the half, Tafari Thomas would hit a 3-ball to make it a 46-33 Reinhardt lead at halftime.

Ameil Malone scored the first five points of the second half for the Knights to make their deficit 48-38. The Eagles, then, went ahead 57-42 at the 13:50 mark after outscoring the Knights 9-4 throughout the span. A Jalin Wimberly 3-pointer gave the Eagles their largest lead of the game at 63-43 with 12:10 to go, but over the next seven minutes of play, the Knights would go on a 19-6 run, with McRae scoring seven points during the stretch, to make it only a 69-62 Reinhardt advantage. With 3:59 left, the Eagles boosted their lead to 75-65, before the Knights made it 78-73 with 59 seconds remaining off a 3 and a layup by Malone. A Barnes free throw and a McRae turnaround baseline jumper brought the Eagles lead to 78-76 with 35 seconds to go, after two missed free throw’s by Reinhardt’s Greg Hobbs. After the Knights fouled Barron, he went to the line and made both free throws, before Wimberly did the same to close out the game.

McRae put up a team-high 23 points for the Knights and Malone scored 17 points with seven rebounds. Barnes finished with 11 points off the bench.

Thomas led all scorers with 26 points and pulled down eight rebounds for the Eagles, while Tyler Smith had 15 points off the bench.

The Knights finished the game 12-of-22 from the free throw line, the key stat that ultimately hurt their chances at winning their fourth game of the season.

Just like in their game against Columbia International, Hernandez knows it was the difference between a win and a loss.

“I’m gonna preach again; we’re playing good, (but) we’ve gotta make free throws,” Hernandez said. “I can’t emphasize that anymore.”

The Knights head to Bluefield, Va. to face Bluefield College in their next contest on Jan. 31 at 5:30 p.m.

Reach Brandon Hodge at [email protected]