SALEM, Va. — Averett University men's basketball played toe-to-toe with Roanoke College in the second half, but the Cougars couldn't overcome a first-half deficit in a 77-59 road loss to the Maroons in Old Dominion Athletic Conference play on Wednesday night.
Roanoke (7-6, 1-4 ODAC), which had played four games since the Cougars last saw action, opened the game on a strong note by jumping out to a 12-2 lead. Averett (2-11, 0-5 ODAC) trailed by as many as 25 points at 40-15 in the first period but closed the gap to 42-22 by halftime after a block by
D'Markus Tucker set up a fade-away jumper by senior
Jordan Lewis at the buzzer.
Roanoke kept Averett around a 20-point margin early in the second half before the Cougars made several runs to trim their deficit. Freshman Jamison Braves' driving layup with 5:18 to play inched Averett within 70-56. However, Roanoke limited to the Cougars to just three points the rest of the way.
Averett outscored Roanoke 37-35 in the second half.
Graves scored a team-high 20 points to go with five rebounds for his second career 20-point performance this season. Lewis added 18 points and six rebounds for Averett, which shot 44.7 percent as a team. Senior
Jason Sellars II and freshman
Colton Price each chipped in eight points, while Tucker had three blocks and five rebounds.
The difference in the game was Roanoke's 20-8 margin in points off turnovers while outscoring the Cougars by 20 in the paint.
Averett is scheduled to travel to Randolph College on Saturday for a 2 p.m. conference matchup.
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