LAURINBURG —Coming off of a thrilling 78-77 overtime victory over Union Commonwealth, the St. Andrews Knights women’s basketball team looked to make it two wins in a row on Saturday afternoon against another conference rival in Pikeville but fell at Harris Court in a 71-56 final. St. Andrews falls to 2-6 (1-3 against conference opponents) on the season with the loss while the Bears improve to 4-2 (3-1 against AAC teams) with the victory.

Pikeville controlled the game throughout as there were just three lead changes and one tie with the Knights’ largest advantage being a four-point lead just over one minute into the contest. The Bears heavily won the first and fourth quarters by a combined score of 38-20 while St. Andrews marginally gained an edge in the middle two periods with 36 total points to Pikeville’s 33.

Even with the loss, the Knights did have an edge in some statistics including rebounds (37-34), second chance points (14-6) and bench points (21-16). Still, St. Andrews shot just 33.9% (20-59) from the field compared to 44.8% (26-58) for Pikeville while also having fewer assists (8-15), more turnovers (12-10), fewer points off turnovers (9-13) and fewer points in the paint (20-28).

Katie Moore led the Knights in scoring with 12 points while also adding five rebounds and an assist. Jamicia Davis added 10 points, six rebounds and two assists off the bench. Alexandria Barrino led the team in rebounds with seven while Londaisha Smith and Davis shared the team lead in assists with two apiece.

The Knights will look to bounce back on their home floor Monday night with a nonconference tilt against Morris. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. from Harris Court.

Men’s basketball falls at home to Pikeville

The men’s team met the same fate as the women’s team on Saturday afternoon, dropping a home contest to conference rival Pikeville by a score of 91-73. St. Andrews falls to 0-6 (0-4 against conference opponents) with the defeat while the Bears improve to 7-1 (3-1 in conference games) with the victory.

Pikeville was in control of the contest from start to finish as the Knights never held a lead and trailed by as many as 24. The Bears outscored St. Andrews 45-32 in the first 20 minutes of action and 46-41 in the final 20 minutes of the contest.

The only notable statistics where the Knights had an advantage were free throw percentage (85.7%-81%), turnovers committed (12-17), points off turnovers (15-14) and bench points (38-19). Pikeville held the edge in field goal percentage (50.8%-37.1%), three-point percentage (42.9%-33.3%), rebounds (46-30), assists (15-12), second chance points (12-9) and points in the paint (38-30).

Mateu Escamilla led the team in points with 18 and also shared the team lead in rebounds (with Jordan Taylor) with six. Christopher Coleman added 16 points, five rebounds, a steal and two blocks off the bench.

St. Andrews will have an opportunity to rebound on Monday night when they welcome Morris to Laurinburg. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Men’s and women’s wrestling take on invitationals

The two wrestling programs headed to separate invites on Saturday as the men participated in the Lucha Open while the women stayed local and hosted the SAU Open at Purnell Swett High School.

Of the results available on trackwrestling, David Coptsias (141) over Jackson Crawford of Southeastern by a score of 18-7 and Joshua Rodriguez Bello (184) over Micah Woods of Huntingdon by fall at 5:24 were the two wins the men Knights had on the day. On the women’s side, Joya Winston (207) picked up a victory over Mikayla Ozueh of Randolph by decision 9-0. No team scores were available for either the men or women.

These were the final competitions for both programs before the Thanksgiving holiday. The men will next host Brewton Parker and Coker on Dec. 7 while the women will next head to the Hawk Classic at Huntington College on Jan. 4, according to the schedules on the team’s Instagram page.