CLEVELAND, GA —The St. Andrews Knights women’s basketball team defeated the Truett McConnell University Bears by a score of 55-53 on Wednesday night at Benjamin F. Brady Arena. St. Andrews picked up their second win in three days to improve their season record to 8-10 (4-7 against AAC teams) while the Bears fall to .500 at 8-8 (5-5 in conference games) with the loss.
Despite the narrow margin of victory, this was a game that the Knights were largely in control of. The largest lead the Bears held at any time in the contest was two points while St. Andrews led by as many as eight. There were five ties and four lead changes between the two teams.
The Knights won two out of four quarters in the games. They outscored the Bears in the first quarter 14-10 and in the third period 19-16 while losing the second and fourth quarters by scores of 17-14 and 10-8 respectively.
Londaisha Smith led St. Andrews in scoring with 16 points, in rebounds with 11, in assists with four (tied for team lead with AJ Price and Jada Richardson) and in steals with four. Angelina Jordan scored the game winning basket for the Knights with 16 seconds remaining, two of her eight points in the contest.
The Knights had a couple of notable advantages on the stat sheet. St. Andrews went perfect from the free throw line (7-7), grabbed more rebounds than the Bears (42-30), dished out more assists (18-13) and scored more second chance points (11-2).
The Knights will go for their third consecutive win when they return home on Saturday afternoon for another conference tilt against Bluefield. Tipoff from Harris Court is scheduled for noon.
Men’s basketball falls to Truett McConnell
The Knights were defeated at Benjamin F. Brady Arena by the Bears in an 86-75 final on Wednesday night. St. Andrews falls to 2-11 (1-9 against conference opponents) on the season with the setback while Truett McConnell improves to 7-8 (4-5 in AAC games) with the victory.
St. Andrews held a 24-22 advantage with 8:08 left in the first half but then saw the Bears score eight unanswered points and never led again. The Knights were outscored in the first half 41-29 before narrowly winning the final 20 minutes by a score of 46-45.
Mateu Escamilla paced St. Andrews in scoring with 19 points while also grabbing four rebounds, dishing out three assists and having three steals. Ma’Nas Drummond added 15 points and led the team in rebounds with five, in assists with four and in steals with five.
Despite the loss, the Knights held a statistical advantage in a few areas. Those include free throw percentage (73.1%-65%), points off turnovers (26-8), second chance points (15-9) and fastbreak points (16-2).
St. Andrews will return home on Saturday afternoon for another conference tilt against Bluefield. Tipoff from Harris Court is scheduled for 2 p.m.
Men’s wrestling loses to Presbyterian College
The Knights traveled south of the border on Wednesday night for a matchup with Presbyterian College. They were defeated at Templeton Gymnasium in Clinton by a score of 45-9.
St. Andrews picked up two match victories. One occurred via decision while one happened via forfeit.
Ayden Rader (133) defeated TJ Rodier by decision 5-2 to score three of the Knights’ nine points. The other six came from Franco Cuccurelo (157) getting a forfeited win.
The Knights had a pair of other victories in extra matches. Cuccurelo beat Josh Williams by major decision 8-0 while Dakota Johnson (184) got a win over George Hopkins via decision 2-0.
St. Andrews will be back in action on Saturday morning at the Southeastern Open. The competition is set to begin at 9 a.m.