Four different players scored in double-figures for the Bluefield College Rams (17-15, 11-5 AAC) to knock the Covenant men's basketball team out of the NCCAA Mid-East Region tournament on Thursday night. The Appalachian Athletic Conference co-champions were led by sophomore Ted O'boute with 17 points which helped the Ramblin' Rams pull away in the second half with a 96-74 victory.
The Scots played well early on, keeping it a back-and-forth game through the majority of the first half, but too many turnovers and mental errors in the waning minutes of the first half allowed Bluefield some breathing room at the intermission. "We played hard and had good stretches," said head coach Kyle Taylor, "but it wasn't consistent enough. We played 25 good minutes, but we need to play 40 if we want to compete at the college level."
Leading the way for Covenant was freshman Callum Sears with 19 points, but perhaps the even bigger story was sophomore Sam Bowman recording his 6th double-double on the year with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
As the Scots look to next season, Coach Taylor continued to stress the need for consistency. "The experience we gained from this year is going to be phenomenal, but we also need to keep bringing in good recruiting classes to build on our foundation."
Indeed, the emergence of Callum Sears, Damien Chaney, and Joey Danek late in the season proves that some of the pieces are already in place, and with a returning head coach for the first time in 3 seasons, the Scots can look forward to seeing the men's basketball program grow.