The Covenant men's basketball hung close but fell to second-ranked Emory, 67-62, inside the Woodruff PE Center on Tuesday night.
Emory (5-0) is now the highest-ranked opponent the Scots have faced in program history coming in ranked No. 2. The previous highest-ranked team came all the way back on Dec. 10, 2016, when they took on No. 4 Whitman in Walla Walla, Washington.
Will Crumly posted his third double-double of the season with 23 points and 12 rebounds to go along with three blocks to pace the Scots.
Chris Barnette was the next leading scorer with 19 points and led the team with five assists.
After the Eagles jumped out to a 6-2 lead just under two minutes into the contest Covenant (3-2) trimmed down the lead to one. On the very next possession, Barnette hit a jumper and the Scots took a, 17-16, advantage with 14:04 left in the half to jumpstart an, 8-0, run.
Emory answered trimming the lead to two with 7:27 remaining. Covenant responded with a, 10-3, run to push their lead back to eight. The Eagles closed out the half on a, 7-2, run of their own and the Scots went into the break with a 40-37 lead.
After trading buckets to start the second half Emory evened things at 45 with 12:52 left in the game and took the lead with a Matt Davet 3-pointer with just under 12 minutes remaining.
Covenant cut the lead to two with a Barnette jumper to trim the Eagle lead to 56-54 with 7:21 left. Emory then stretched the lead to nine with 5:13 left and the teams went scoreless until a James Mitchell three with 3:47 left cut the lead to 63-57.
Crumly then made a layup with 1:37 left to cut the lead to three. Then down 65-62 Crumly's 3-point try was just off and Emory converted free throws at the other end to ice the game and give the Eagles the 67-62 victory.
Davet led Emory with 24 points while Romin Williams and Matthew Schner pitched in 13 of their own. Lawrence Rowley rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11. Schner paced the team with eight boards and Nick Stuck had seven assists.
The two teams took care of the ball with only 19 turnovers in the whole game. Covenant had 10 while the Scots forced nine Eagles turnovers.
Covenant shot 25-for-52 (48.1 percent) from the floor and went 34.8 percent (8-for-23) from 3-point range. The Scots struggled shooting a tough 40 percent (4-of-10) from the free-throw line.
The hosts went 25-for-55 (40 percent) overall and 38.5 percent (10-for-26) from distance. The Eagles went 13-for-18 (72.2 percent) from the charity stripe.
The Scots travel to Maryville on Wed., Dec. 4, at 7:30 p.m. to open up USA South play.