In its first game of the Coca-Cola Classic, the Covenant men's basketball team took on Bob Jones in the first-ever meeting between the two schools. The Scots didn't start the game they would have liked to, but boy did they finish it strong, erasing a 26-point first-half deficit to pick up their second win of the year, 96-84.
A transition basket from Pierce Smith put the score tied at five right before the first media timeout.
A few minutes later, Bob Jones started to get hot offensively, using a 19-0 run to go up 27-8.
Bob Jones kept their foot on the pedal as a triple followed by a fast break layup put them ahead 38-12, for what would be their biggest lead of the night.
Adam Deininger buried a pair of triples to cut the deficit to 42-22 with 5:38 remaining.
With Covenant still down 20 points, Luuk Dusek scored eight points in 44 seconds to cut the lead to 50-38. A pair of made free throws from Reece Pride with 14 seconds left in the half put Covenant down 51-40 at the break.
Covenant scored the first 14 points of the half, highlighted by a transition slam from Smith as it now was in front 54-51. Starting at the 15:29 marker of the half, Covenant went on another scoring run, this one a 9-0 run with four different players scoring to put the score at 65-55.
Bob Jones fought back as a pair of baskets took Covenant's lead down to five points at 71-66.
The Scots then clamped up on defense, holding the Bruins scoreless for just under four minutes as they pushed their lead up to 13 points. Covenant and Bob Jones traded baskets for the final three minutes as the Scots earned the double-digit victory.
Covenant moves to 1-0 all-time against Bob Jones. Smith led Covenant with his second consecutive double-double, posting 18 points and 12 rebounds, both of which were career-highs. He also had four blocks and three steals. Both Patterson and Colt Donley scored 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Deininger scored 13 points with three made triples.
Jake Stephens also was in double-figures with a career-high 10 points. Covenant shot 49.3 % (34-69) from the field and 30.8% (8-26) from behind the 3-point line while Bob Jones was 40.3% (29-72) and 28.6% (8-28) in the same categories. Covenant won the rebound battle 43-33.
Covenant takes on Toccoa Falls Saturday at 2 p.m. on day two of the Coca-Cola Classic.