Covenant Men Win At Home Over Piedmont 75-55

Friday, January 29, 2021

The Covenant men's basketball team rode a wave of hot-shooting in the first half and cruised to its fourth straight victory with a 75-55 win over Piedmont on Friday night inside Barnes PE Center.

Covenant (7-3, 3-0 USA South) has won four straight games, a season-best, and won at home for the 12th time in the last 13 games. It was also the Scots' sixth straight win over Piedmont.

The Scots shot 57.1 percent (16-of-28) with eight 3-pointers in the first half and opened up a 22-point lead.

Covenant never trailed in the contest and led by as many as 31 in the second half.

Chris Barnette scored a game-high 17 points to go with five assists and four rebounds, while Will Crumly tallied a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds. Promise Igbanu had a career-high 13 points with four rebounds and Brady Palmer added 12 points and three assists.

Covenant used a couple of different runs in the first half to open up the big lead. A 7-0 spurt midway through the first half, capped by a Daevon Platt 3-pointer, gave the Scots a 23-11 lead with 9:48 remaining. A Palmer layup and a Crumly 3-pointer ended the first half to give Covenant its 22-point lead (44-22).

The lead grew in the first five minutes of the second half as a Crumly bucket with 14:47 left made it a 31-point margin (58-27). Piedmont would not get closer than 20 points the rest of the way.

Covenant finished the game connecting on 49.1 percent (28-of-57) from the field, just missing a fourth straight game of 50 percent shooting or better. The Scots hit 12 3-pointers, led by three each from Barnette and Platt while outrebounding the visiting Lions, 34-32.

Platt had nine points off the bench for Covenant.

Piedmont (5-6, 2-3 USA South) was led by Will Richter's 12 points. The Scots held Ryan Jolly, Piedmont's leading scorer at 20.5 points per game, to only nine points and seven shot attempts.

The Lions hit just 36.4 percent (20-of-55) for the game with 10 3-pointers.

Covenant and Piedmont will complete the season series on Saturday at 2 p.m. on Lookout Mountain.