LAURINBURG — The St. Andrews Knights (3-20, 1-19 Appalachian Athletic Conference) faced one of their biggest challenges of the season Tuesday night, as they hosted the Union Bulldogs (23-1, 21-0 AAC), the No. 5 ranked team in the NAIA, and looked to pull off a monumental upset.
The Knights trailed by only six points at the half, thanks to a 19-point first half by Ameil Malone, but struggled to maintain the Union scoring duo of Markelo Sullivan and Terrin Hamilton in the second half, which led to a 94-75 loss.
St. Andrews head coach Randy Hernandez discussed what hurt his team’s chances at pulling off the upset after the game.
“(Sullivan) came in and shot well, and that was the big difference,” Hernandez said. “He was 5-for(7) in the first half. They’re just a good team.”
Sullivan scored the first points of the game on a layup to put Union up 2-0. Malone would follow with a 3-pointer, before Israel Farrington put the Bulldogs back on top 4-3. The Knights were able to keep pace with the Bulldogs, but struggled to stop the scoring of Sullivan and Markelle Turner, who together scored the next 24 points for Union, as the Knights went behind 29-22 with 12:53 left in the half. A Malone jumper and a Caleb Brown 3-ball helped the Knights trail by only two, but after the Knights were down 31-29 with 8:41 left before the half, the Bulldogs would finish the last eight minutes outscoring the Knights 16-12, despite Malone and Allan Taylor scoring the rest of the points in the half for St. Andrews. At halftime, the Knights were down 47-41 against the Bulldogs.
Union began the second half with seven straight points until Malone cashed home a 3 to make the Knights deficit 54-44 at the 17:07 mark. The Bulldogs, then, went on a 16-5 run, that included treys from Sullivan, Turner, and Hamilton, to make their lead 70-49 with 12:00 remaining. The Knights were able to go on a run of their own, however, as they outscored the Bulldogs 15-7 over the next 3 1/2 minutes of play, which was capped off with a 3 by Quwan Barnes. The Bulldogs scored six straight points afterward though to make it 83-64, as the Knights never got within 16 points of the lead for the rest of the game.
Malone led St. Andrews with 29 points and 11 rebounds, and Taylor finished with 15 points. Lexander put up 14 points and five boards, while Brown had three points and 10 assists.
Sullivan had a game-high 30 points and shot 5-of-7 from 3-point range. Hamilton had 18 points, all in the second half.
The Bulldogs, as a team, went 14-of-39 from deep.
Although they weren’t able to pull out the win, the Knights showed consistency on the defensive end at times which allowed them to stay in the game for much of the first half.
Hernandez talked about his team’s defensive play and what he liked from what he saw.
“We’ve just got to do our job,” Hernandez said. “We have much to learn, much to improve, and I think we did a good job in certain situations.”
The Knights continue their six-game home stretch to close out the season with Point University on Feb. 9 at 7 p.m.