HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – Lenoir-Rhyne University will honor its basketball seniors on Saturday when the Bears face Lincoln Memorial in a conference doubleheader at Shuford Gym.
The games begin at 2 p.m. in Shuford Gym when the women play, and the men’s game will follow to close the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) regular season.
The LRU men are tied for fourth place with Tusculum, trailing Queens (18-1), Lincoln Memorial (14-5) and Catawba (13-6).
LRU’s women share fifth place in the SAC with Newberry and Lincoln Memorial.
Anderson (S.C.) leads the league standings at 19-0, followed by Carson-Newman and Wingate, each at 14-5, and Tusculum (8-7 after having four SAC wins nullified) is in fourth place.
The top four teams earn home quarterfinal games in the SAC tournament on Wednesday before the tournament moves to Greenville, S.C., for its last two rounds.
MEN
Catawba 89, LRU 81, OT (Wednesday)
The Bears wiped out a 20-point deficit to get to overtime before the Indians prevailed.
Catawba (20-7, 13-6) had a 20-point lead with three minutes left in the first half.
LRU fell to 18-9 overall and is 11-8 in the conference.
Djibril Diallo led the Bears with 19 points and added six rebounds and four assists. He scored the first five points of overtime but Catawba outscored LRU 21-13 in the extra session.
Darius Simmons came off the bench to provide 15 points, hitting two 3-pointers.
Catawba led 36-16 with three minutes, five seconds left in the opening half before the Bears had a 35-14 run to lead 51-50 with 11:09 left to play.
Jordan McElveen hit all 12 of his free throws and scored 27 points for Catawba. He also had seven rebounds.
For LRU, Cory Thomas finished with 11 points and Jon Jean had seven points, five boards and five assists.
The Bears were in their fourth overtime game of the season and had won the other three.
LRU has played 18 games decided by single digits this season.
Catawba out-rebounded LRU 45-30 and took 36 free throws to the Bears’ 15 attempts at the free-throw line.
LRU MEN SCHEDULE: https://www.thesac.com/sports/mbkb/2018-19/schedule?teamId=u4x6qxapw7jkxihs
SAC MEN STANDINGS: https://www.thesac.com/sports/mbkb/2018-19/standings
WOMEN
LRU 66, Catawba 50 (Wednesday)
The Bears won on the road, extending their win streak to three games, with a strong defensive effort.
LRU improved to 15-12 overall and 10-9 in the league and dropped Catawba to 13-13, 8-1.
In the most recent game, the Bears limited Catawba to 3-of-18 shooting on 3-pointers while making nine of their own and shooting 41.8 percent from the floor.
Catawba had an early 8-0 lead but the Bears rallied and led by 10 points at the half.
Kendall Toineeta led LRU with 16 points, five assists and three rebounds. She was 7-for-16 shooting and hit two 3-pointers.
Ashley Rodriguez made three 3-pointers and scored 13 points in a non-starting role.
Talia Barnes had a double-double for Catawba – which shot 28.1 percent — with 16 points and 16 rebounds.
LRU got to the free-throw line only twice, entering the game 10th in NCAA Division II in free throw percentage at 77.7.
LRU WOMEN SCHEDULE: https://lrbears.com/schedule.aspx?schedule=193
SAC WOMEN STANDINGS: https://www.thesac.com/sports/wbkb/2018-19/standings
— Game information reported by LRU Sports Information